Mixed messages
Published Date:
04 September 2008
CANCER treatments have improved immeasurably in recent years, but the disease continues to pose a major challenge to medical science. The vaccine against the HPV virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer, and the fact that the NHS is paying for millions of schoolgirls to receive it, should therefore be a cause for celebration.
Unfortunately, however, this life-saving breakthrough in healthcare is in danger of becoming entangled in the debate over how teenagers can best be encouraged to take a responsible attitude to sex. In an echo of the row over contraception, there are concerns that providing this kind of vaccine to young girls will send mixed signals.
But this is not a zero
sum game. Providing a vaccine against a
sexually transmitted disease does not mean schools can ignore the
need to provide proper
sex education lessons which should stress the value of long-term relationships.
More importantly, it
does not excuse parents from meeting their own responsibilities to
discuss these subjects
with their children, no matter how difficult that may be.
Denying young girls protection from cervical cancer will not stop them having ill-considered encounters. Providing the vaccine will at least stop them paying a terrible price.
The full article contains 204 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
04 September 2008 10:37 AM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Yorkshire
