Politics, Parents, and Prophylaxis — Mandating HPV Vaccination in the United States

R. Alta Charo writes that access to the HPV vaccines has already become more a political than a public health question. Though the more important focus might be on the high cost of the vaccines, concern has focused instead on a purported interference in family life and sexual mores. Professor Charo discusses the legal, political, ethical, and financial considerations surrounding the mandating of HPV vaccination in the United States. R. Alta Charo is a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.