EDITORIAL: Editorials HPV Vaccine for Girls

Feb 07, 09:13 AM

Current Headlines: By Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Feb. 7--SO FAR, GARDASIL, the new human papillomavirus vaccine, looks promising. Medical researchers have found that it protects women from two of the main strains of the HPV virus, a sexually transmitted infection responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all girls receive the vaccine at age 11 or 12 because it is most effective when given before someone becomes sexually active.

Women through age 26 who have not already had the Gardasil shot also are being encouraged to get it.

There is little doubt that the vaccine has the potential to save thousands of lives. Every year, an estimated 4,000 women die from cervical cancer.

But is that a good enough reason to make the shot mandatory for middle school girls?

Texas Gov. Rick Perry thinks so. Earlier this week, Perry signed an order requiring all Texas school girls to get the Gardasil shot when they reach sixth grade.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, has introduced a similar bill in the California Legislature. As in the case of Texas, parents would be able to opt out of the vaccinations for reasons of religion or conscience.

The issue has set off heated debate. Supporters of mandatory HPV vaccinations believe that legally requiring the shots is the only way to protect girls against a deadly disease. Those against the laws argue that government has no right to dictate to parents what's best for their children's health.

There has always been a delicate balance between the government's right to safeguard public health, and an individual's right to make his or her own health decisions, and those of his or her children.

Back in the 1950s, schools began requiring children to get immunized against polio, measles, small pox and other communicable diseases. The theory was that the greater good, i.e. preventing an outbreak of polio, outweighed an individual's right not to have the vaccine.

What makes the HPV virus such a lightning rod for controversy is that you don't catch it from sitting next to someone in class. It's sexually transmitted.

Conservatives argue that in mandating the vaccine, the government is discouraging abstinence and encouraging children to have sex.

We are not convinced that fear is founded. Yet we do believe that mandating the HPV vaccine, even if it saves lives, is a leap into troubling waters.

The government should not force parents to vaccinate their daughters against an illness that is not a public health hazard.

Yet given the medical benefits, it would be hard to see why any parent would choose not to do so.

-----

Copyright (c) 2007, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.