HPV vaccine: Ky. proposes a little breathing room

The Kentucky House came down on the side of a controversial vaccine said to prevent a virus that causes most cervical cancers. Legislators voted to require it for middle-school girls but tempered that "requirement" by giving parents wide range to opt out.

The measure now goes to the state Senate for consideration.

It's hard to perfectly assess anybody's motivation on this issue, tainted it has been by heavy lobbying by vaccine maker Merck & Co., and influenced by conservatives who say the vaccine could implicitly promote sexual activity and staunch advocates who say it's a stunning health advance and no family should have the ability to opt out.

I think the Kentucky House was right to build in the option.

Parents aren't necessarily being reactionary by taking a cautious approach with this vaccine. From post-menopausal hormonal treatment to side effects of birth control, females have sometimes felt yanked around by medical advances that seemed not quite ready for prime time.

This issue has been so filled with hype that families deserve a chance to investigate the issue for themselves and ask questions of their children's pediatrician. Good public information campaigns -- which have largely been missing from this roll-out -- can go a long way toward leading parents to make the right decision for their daughters and feeling comfortable with it as well.

Merck should have stayed in the lab on this one. Good science will stand on its own in the long run.