The War On Fucking
by tristero
As the father of a 9 year-old daughter, I take this story personally. Turns out that Merck has developed a cervical cancer vaccine that is coming up for FDA approval:
Gardasil was developed by Merck in Montgomery County. It targets the human papilloma virus. Virtually all cervical cancers are caused by some strain of this virus, known as HPV. It’s very common among both men and women, and is transmitted by sexual contact.
Most women never know they’re infected with HPV until a suspicious Pap test…or worse.
Dr. Richard Boulay of Lehigh Valley Hospital says Gardasil breaks the infection chain.
Dr. Richard Boulay/Lehigh Valley Hospital: “Those that get the vaccine can expect greater than 90 percent protection&Many studies have shown 100 percent prevention.”
According to the current Discover Magazine (not yet on line) this could potentially save 2,500 lives. As Alan Kaye of the National Cervical Cancer Coaltion says in the article, “How could we deny our children and grandchildren awin against cancer…Why should we?”
Well, as it happens, our morally-stunted fellow citizens on the right have the answer to the questions. Turns out the the best time to administer the vaccine is when the girl is between 10 and 12 years old. And Hal Wallace, head of the anti-fucking activist group that’s deliberately mislabeleld as”Physicians Consortium,” believes that vaccinating an 11 year-old girl against cervical cancer would send a message “that you just take this shot and you can be as sexually promiscuous as you want.” And the equally loony Family Research Council (James Dobson’s band of self-righteous prigs) says “it would oppose any measures to legally require vaccination.”
Since it is likely to win approval (sounds like there’s at least some integrity left somewhere at the FDA), let’s assume here that the vaccine is as effective as Merck claims. And that it’s safe. It would border on the criminal to withold this vaccine, to ensure that every child receives it at the optimum age to guarantee efficacy. It would be simply insanely stupid to advocate such an idiotic reason as fear of increased promiscuity to oppose its administration to pre-pubescent girls. (Oh, for those of you who like to waste time refuting utterly stupid arguments with facts that are irrelevant to the stupid, it turns out, that according to Discover, there is proof that such vaccinations will not alter the sexual habits of the vaccinated. Duh.)
Obviously, if the vaccine is not as safe or effective as Merck claims, the case for widespread use becomes morally complex. But as it stands, the only reason to oppose this cancer vaccine is because you believe that fucking should harm, if not kill, you. Unless, that is, you refrain from sex until you’ve received a state license to procreate. And you don’t fuck anyone else. Especially if you’re a woman.
If these people have any moral values at all except for a belief in excrutiating punishment and death if you don’t agree to forgo all pleasure by debasing your mind and body by submission to their weird beliefs, I can’t see them. This isn’t morality. Opposition to the wide distribution of a cancer vaccine that is apparently both highly effective and safe is nothing but perversion, pure and simple. To knowingly deny a child prevention against a terrible disease flies in the face of everything I believe in.
[UPDATE: A Spork in the Drawer has some info on how a public discussion on the uselessness of “abstinence only” sex education – for which little positive can be said other than the composition of numerous bad jokes – was forced into a fake semblance of “balance” by Republicans.