Koop Makes Plea for AIDS Education

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop assailed conservative critics and appealed to religious broadcasters Monday to help spread the word about the danger of AIDS.

Koop said that he has “no misgivings about anything” contained in an AIDS report he issued last October, but that he probably would be “just a little bit clearer” in the section on sex education in schools if he had it to do again.

“It does contain 92 words on sex education, and those 92 words became the focal point of the media coverage of the report and of much bickering and criticism, too,” he said.

Koop, a pediatric surgeon, said it is crucial that parents play a major role in the sex education of their children, but that many adults are not emotionally equipped to do so.

“If the curriculum is well planned and thoughtfully carried out, then it will be possible to bring to the attention of the children the facts about sexually transmitted disease--and AIDS in particular--along about the junior high school years,” he told the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters organization.

Koop said that the public health battle against AIDS is “a war against disease, not people” and urged that the Christian broadcasters obey their creed and “separate the sin from the sinner.”