Leave our daughters alone.

Here is a link to my letter to the Louisville Courier-Journal Editor regarding the proposed bill in the Kentucky Legislature MANDATING the HPV vaccination of our young daughters. It is reprinted below. Tell me what you think:


courier-journal.com > Opinion >

Saturday, February 10, 2007
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The vaccine debate

'Leave daughters alone'

Much has been written about the need for girls to get the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine.

HPV is linked to cervical cancer and is transmitted through sexual contact.

Texas, where an executive order made it the first and only state mandating HPV vaccination for girls entering fifth grade, is now attempting to legislatively reverse the order.

Legislators cite the governor's incestuous relationship with Merck, the drug maker, which is bankrolling efforts nationwide to mandate the vaccinations, as well as costs, safety concerns and the governor's lack of authority.

Those concerns are very legitimate. Add to that my concern whether our government needs to act as "Superparent"to our children. I suggest our government leave our daughters alone.

HPV, like HIV, which causes AIDS, is a bad virus. But no good can come from an edict denying parents their natural right to decide what is in their children's best interests -- especially for such a lifestyle-choice virus, which is not a true public threat.

An obviously true public threat, tuberculosis, which is airborne and doesn't need direct contact to spread, demands mandatory vaccination. HPV, which isn't airborne, doesn't.

We invite our government to resist the pressure of Merck's lobbying power, as well as the urge to play our Big Brother.

OSI ONYEKWULUJE

Bowling Green, Ky. 42102

Click here to see where the C_J stands on this issue.