If you could vaccinate your kids against cancer, wouldn't you do
it? The answer may sound obvious. But we can vaccinate our kids
against some vicious types of cancer -- and many parents are
deliberately choosing not to. Why? Because the cancers involved
-- of the cervix, head, neck, vagina, and penis -- can be caused
by a sexually transmitted disease called human papillomavirus
(HPV). And some parents have a better idea for how their kids
can avoid that disease: sexual abstinence until marriage. They
also fear that the vaccine may promote promiscuity by removing
one deterrent. They're right that abstinence is a surefire
protection. But it's not very smart to say that kids who lapse
from that ideal should be exposed to potentially fatal
consequences. And even limiting sex to a marital partner is no
guarantee -- if the partner has had other partners. As it is, by
the way, nearly one-third of teens kids age 14 to 19 already
have HPV. That's grounds for alarm. And a new study of 2,000
girls, half of whom got the