HPV Vaccine – Should Christians Innoculate their Children?

The FDA has approved a vaccine by Merck that will innoculate against several forms of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). HPV comes in many different forms, and a few of those forms cause the vast majority of cervical cancers. The CDC has a “fact sheet” on the vaccine that is informative, and puts to rest several of the myths already surrounding the vaccine (such as that it will prevent “100% of cervical cancer”). Click here! for the facts.

But should Christians innoculate their children against a sexually transmitted disease? Does that simply encourage promiscuous behavior?

There are some problems with the marketing of this vaccine. The Merck reps are reportedly saying the vaccine is “100%” effective, and it is … against 70% of the strains of HPV that can cause cervical cancer. The other 30% will still happen, and Merck’s marketing machine may actually make those 30% more deadly. If women who have the vaccine get complacent about their chances of contracting cervical cancer, they may not get their annual or semi-annual pap smears. Early detection of abnormal cervical cells is essential, as 90% of the estimated 4,000 cervical cancer deaths each year could be avoided with early detection.

But that aside, is innoculation of our children a good idea?

It is only sexually active people who are exposed HPV, and non-penetrative sexual contact transmission of the virus is considered rare. Condoms don’t seem to provide nearly as much protection against HPV as they do against other STDs, because close skin contact with infected areas is still possible. Transmission through non-sexual contact from bad hygene is “possible” but undocumented …. meaning no one has ever shown that it can be transmitted that way.

Christians may worry that giving their children the vaccine might be seen as a “green light” for promiscuous behavior. With children 12 – 14, who are normally not sexually active, misinformation from the more libertine elements of society may indeed seem to give a green light once “protected from HPV”. But remember, the vaccine protects only against 70% of the strains that cause cervical cancer. There should be caution exercised about the remaining 30%, as well as all the other STDs.

The health benefits of the vaccine appear to be sound, with the FDA finding the vaccine “safe and effective”. There is no thimersol or other mercury-like compounds that are sometimes suspected of causing other childhood problems such as autism. So the question boils down to the moral question, rather than just a scientific question.

Because the vaccine doesn’t give a “green light” (it will prevent only 70% of the HPV strains), and early innoculation doesn’t appear to be harmful, I think the moral question has to be framed another way.

Christians believe that humans are sinful, and estranged from God. When a person comes to terms with that fact, and accepts the gift of salvation through Christ’s substitionary atonement, the person is a “new creature”, with all their sins washed away. Even past sexual promiscuouity. The regenerated Christian enters into a new life, and all Christians are on the same footing. To paraphrase the Wall Street crowd, past performance is no indicator of present salvation.

But salvation doesn’t normally wash away HPV. (For the non-faithful: I must say “normally” because there is the chance that God will chose to heal physical ailments at the same time He heals the more important spiritual ailment).

Evangelicals, then, should consider this a preventative measure against a condition that survives even the regenerative power of substitionary atonement. Your future son-in-law could be washed in the blood and a new creature in Christ, a Promise Keeper, faithful and the “husband of one wife”, and still unknowingly pass one of the strains of HPV he doesn’t even know he has.