MI to tell girls they must get poked?
They've had a vaccine for human papilloma virus for three months now, and already the women of the Michigan legislature want to make it mandatory. Hey. I'm all for preventing cervical cancer. But I have a problem when government tells you what to stick into your childrens' bodies, and when the state zaps employers or the Federal government $360 per dose. And oh, before anyone accuses me of misogyny, I'd have the same problems with a prostate cancer shot.
Comments
Posted by: Susan
Posted on: June 25, 2007 08:03 PM
According to CervicalCancer.org almost 500.000 new cervical cancer cases worldwide will occur this year - shouldn´t this be enough to use any available method to prevent this disease?
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: June 26, 2007 08:47 AM
Well, Susan, circumcision decreases the spread of AIDS; should we make it mandatory? For that matter, we could reduce both cervical cancer and AIDS by castrating all males, and that's certainly covered by "any available method". That would have some unfortunate side effects (like genocide), but so does practically any other solution, including this one.
The question is not whether HPV vaccine is a good thing. On the face of it, it is, but there is much we don't know yet. The question is whether the state is morally or factually qualified to act in loco parentis.