TIME TO PULL PLUG ON SG?

It might be time to read last rites over the Surgeon General. Not the
person - the office. If ever there was a realm of officialdom whose
usefulness was on life support, it's this one.

That's not to say it's always been that way, or that the fine public
servants who have worn the spiffy uniform haven't been dedicated
physicians who tried, in some cases successfully, to do something
significant and lasting for the cause of public health.

Certainly Dr. Luther Terry, who held the office in 1964, helped to
save thousands of lives over the last 37 years by authoring the first
government report to make the links between smoking and deadly disease
a matter of scientific record.

Since that time, surgeons general have used the bully pulpit of their
office to focus public attention on such areas as nutrition, prenatal
care, children's issues, sexually transmitted diseases and mental health.

But over the last couple of decades the post has become so entangled
in what we've come to call political correctness - in all its
ideological ramifications - as to render it all but worthless. The
current and soon to be former occupant, Dr. David Satcher of nearby
Anniston, Ala., ran afoul of the current administration, or at least
one of its key voting blocs, by advancing such off-the-wall ideas as
(a) "abstinence-only" sex education is not statistically effective,
and (b) there is no scientific evidence that people can choose their
sexual orientation. Both observations, he said, were based on "what's
supported by the science."

Silly man. This isn't about science, and hasn't been for years now.
It's about passing muster with politicians and their constituencies -
in this case social conservatives, although God knows there are plenty
of other groups that demand political appeasement.

He should have consulted with some of his predecessors. The
distinguished C. Everett Koop was accused of "teaching sodomy" because
he confirmed that condoms could help stem the spread of AIDS. Joycelyn
Elders had the temerity to say the war on drugs was a failure and that
masturbation is a part of normal human sexual development, and was
hounded out of office by people who knew she was right but saw
political advantage in carrying torches for the lynch mob.

The office of surgeon general is either about medical science, in
which case it can serve an invaluable public function, or it is about
ideological agendas, in which case it is a transparent and expensive
sham. The trend seems depressingly obvious.