Originally Posted by TheAgitator

Beyond Parody

A vaccine against HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, is on the horizon. But the moral right is already gearing up to oppose its distribution. Why? Apparently because HPV is sexually transmitted, and vaccinating women against might -- are you ready for this? -- encourage women to have premarital sex.

From the New Scientist:

"Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV," says Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, a leading Christian lobby group that has made much of the fact that, because it can spread by skin contact, condoms are not as effective against HPV as they are against other viruses such as HIV.

"Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex," Maher claims, though it is arguable how many young women have even heard of the virus.

So to prevent theoretical additional occurences of premarital sex, Maher's okay with unnecessarily subjecting young women to fucking cancer? Holy moral rectitude, Bridget. You have to wonder, would the Family Research Council oppose distribution of an AIDS vaccine, too -- because it might spark an increase in gay sex?

I suppose it could be worse:

"We found that some Asian women in Britain are afraid even to get tested for HPV infection, because they say if it is positive they will be killed, never mind that their husbands probably gave it to them," says Szarewski. She feels that such attitudes may mean that HPV vaccination may be a non-starter in such communities.
Jesus.

I ask you, which is worse?


The American left won't let agri-firms develop biotech products that could save millions of lives in the developing world because it upsets their delicate notions of what's "natural" (never mind how many of the world's poor have succumbed to malaria because of the green left's objections to DDT).

or,


The American right is ready to oppose distribution of a cancer vaccine to the developing (and developed, for that matter) world because it might lead to marginal increases in premarital sex (never mind how many of the world's poor have succumbed to AIDS because of the relious right's objections to condom distribution).

The answer is that they're two sides of the same coin.

I'd wager that self-righteousness has killed more people the world over than war, famine, and natural disaster combined.