Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Poor reasons to oppose the HPV vacccine

There are debates going on at several Catholic school boards over whether the introduction of the HPV vaccine will promote promiscuity:
'The board believes the vaccine will give students a signal of support for premarital sex and the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops notes in a Sept. 13 letter to parents that sex is "only appropriate within marriage."'
What vexes is me about this reasoning is that, even for those that don't believe in pre-marital sex, I find it hard to believe that a spectre of a death-sentence should loom over this transgression. More importantly it bothers me that these Catholic boards are remembering that unfortunately, not all sexual contact is voluntary. I'm really hoping that this is not an unconscious a new variant of the notion that rape victims were somehow "asking for it" and should suffer the consequences.

If you want to oppose HPV vaccines on the grounds that the vaccine may need more testing or that that long-term effects are unknown, that's fine reason. Thinking that it promotes promiscuity? That's not going to be a good enough reason for me.

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