166419 HPV Vaccine: Public health versus private wealth

Wednesday, November 7, 2007: 10:50 AM

Lawrence Gostin, JD, LLD , Director, Center for Law and the Public's Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Following the FDA's June 2006 decision to approve a prophylactic quadrivalent HPV vaccine to protect against certain types of HPV linked to cervical cancer, a national public debate ensued over the appropriateness of requiring teenage girls to be vaccinated. In this presentation, Associate Dean Lawrence O. Gostin of the Georgetown University Law Center and the O'Neill Institute for Global and National Health Law recommends against a compulsory vaccination program and argue for a voluntary system that will maintain the trust of the public and the legal rights of individuals.

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate the ethical and medical implications of compulsory HPV vaccination. Identify the principles that have guided vaccination policy in the past. Discuss how these principles can inform a sensible and just HPV policy.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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