The gift of health
Denmark is generally more progressive than the US, particularly on health issues. But a current program makes that startling clear. They are selling gift certificates for HPV vaccinations, and grandparents are buying them as gifts for their grandchildren.
While the Religious Wrong carries on its campaign to make sure that women who have sex face the consequences, Denmark inoculated 21,000 girls the first month the vaccine was available. They attacked the problem aggressively, even though their cervical cancer rate is low at 400 diagnoses a year, of whom 175 die annually. They rightly see it as a health issue, not a moral issue.
I think such a gifting program would do well here. Grandparents tend to be less judgmental and more practical about almost all aspects of childrearing. Perhaps that’s where the pressure to protect the health of our children needs to come from.
Via The Copenhagen Post
May 14th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
“their cervical cancer rate is low at 400 diagnoses a year”
More women in Denmark died of cervical cancer last year than died of HIV/AIDS-related complications. I really wonder what the reaction would be if we could vaccinate for HIV infection…maybe a little different?
May 15th, 2008 at 9:48 am
The reaction here or in Denmark?
Here I think there would still me massive resistance to an HIV vaccine based on the “moral” precept that those who have “immoral sex” deserve to die. You’d be amazed at the number of people in that camp. They’re the same ones fighting condom use in Africa — everyone should just stay a virgin. Those who don’t deserve no protection. Their lives aren’t worth saving.