The FDA gets religion

[Troubleshooter]

http://www.reason.com/rb/rb110405.shtml

Safety, Efficacy, Morality
The FDA gets religion
Ronald Bailey


A wonderful medical breakthrough was announced last month. A new vaccine against the two types of human papilloma virus (HPV), which are responsible for thousands of cases of cervical cancer each year, has been shown to be 100 percent effective in blocking the virus. Each year more than 12,000 American women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and more than 3,000 die of the disease. The advent of this new vaccine is a public health triumph and should be cause for celebration, right?

Not so fast, say some social and religious conservatives. For instance, Dr. Hal Wallis, head of the abstinence only sex education group the Physicians Consortium is worried that the vaccine might encourage people, especially unmarried teenagers, to be more promiscuous. "We're going to be sending a message to a lot of kids, I think, that you just take this shot and you can be as sexually promiscuous as you want and it's not going to be a problem, and that's just not true," said Dr. Wallis to the conservative religious group Focus on the Family.

...more...

[Griff]

So kids are not having sex because of cervical cancer? Dope. (not the good dope the bad dope)

[footfootfoot]

Too bad Dr. Wallis's mom wasn't more afraid of cervical cancer...

Gee, when I was a kid, that was a major topic of discussion, "Should I have sex with my boyfriend and risk cervical cancer or should I become a nun and bring my chance of cervical cancer down to near zero?" Right thinking girls in my generation all decided on chastity. That's why many of the rest of you were never born.

Yep, I bet the introduction of this vaccine will lead to teens having orgies in the streets! The city right next door to me has the dubious honor of being the headquarters for Focus on the Family. As a popular local bumper sticker reads, "Focus on your OWN damned family!"

I give them an A+ for sheer stupidity and an F- in morals, integrity, and compassion.

Personally, I think people who get heart attacks should be left to die - they were most likely gluttons and deserved heart problems. Research on heart disease will only encourage people to engage in the deadly sin of gluttony. The same for people who get cancer. They were obviously thinking bad thoughts which lowered the ability of their immune systems to fight off cancer cells.

Schizophrenics are simply posessed by the devil. Find a cure for it, and people will allow the devil to take over by the millions just for the thrill of experiencing demonic possesion which would now be easily reversed.

Later in the article, the author mentions a Dr. Hager who is not in favor of the Plan B morning after pill being put out on the market without requiring a doctor's prescription:

"In a sermon Dr. Hager later declared, "I argued from a scientific perspective, and God took that information, and he used it through this minority report to influence the decision. Once again, what Satan meant for evil, God turned into good."

The good doctor wouldn't know science if Gallileo dropped an anvil on him from 50 stories up!

[xoxoxoBruce]

From here

Hal Wallis, MD is fellow of The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity and Diplomat of the American Board of Ob-Gyn.

snip~~Spectral Genomics of Houston, Texas recently announced a new technique (as of yet not FDA-approved) for molecular karyotyping using what is known as a genomic microarray. Instead of looking at chromosomes grossly, this technique can divide the chromosomes at over 1400 locations within an individual's genetic sequence This allows for the evaluation of additions and deletions of genetic material within relatively small segments of DNA. This information, when compared to the existing genomic data base, may potentially identify multiple possible genetic disorders with a single test.1
The implications of this technology are likely to be profoundly troubling. Since Roe v. Wade, the (always tragic) decision to have an abortion has most often been driven by the personal desire of one or both parents to end the pregnancy, with no serious regard for the potential of the child. The expanded ability to identify multiple variations within an individual's genetic makeup reverses this concept. That is to say, the decision to carry or abort a pregnancy will increasingly be based on an infant's ability to rise to a predetermined standard of acceptability, a standard that is determined either by the parents or society. The new view of abortion will be characterized as "prenatal euthanasia," carried out for the good of the parents, child, and society.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Gee, when I was a kid, that was a major topic of discussion, "Should I have sex with my boyfriend and risk cervical cancer or should I become a nun and bring my chance of cervical cancer down to near zero?"

Ah,yes. I remember those long talks with the good Sisters of Last Chance Catholic High very well...

I voted for getting the Cancer.

Yep, me and my friends figured hey, we'll have fun now and get cancer later. None of us expected to make it past 30, anyhow.

[Elspode]

Clearly, you're all forgetting that it is generally acknowledged that AIDS and other STDs have been scientifically proven to be retribution from Jehovah God for promiscuity and homsexuality. By scientists, who work in science places using science tools and other science stuff. Proven, I tell you!

Incidentally, Westboro Baptist Church's Fred Phelps and his supporters (mostly his children and their families, what I like to call a "Build Your Own Cult Kit) have also begun protesting the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan - that's *all* soldiers, not gay soldiers. It seems that their deaths, too, are the work of The Almighty, who is punishing our nation for being tolerant of homosexuality.

Praise the Lord, for we are so beloved by Him that He is showing us the error of our ways through the killing of those innocent of affront. I always said we'd get back to that more efficient Old Testament kind of religious life some day. Hallelujah, it is here!