TAKING SIDES ANALYSIS REPORT (LONG FORM)

Name: Parisa Abdoy

Course: Biology 1090-003
Book: Taking Sides Reading
Issue number: 11 Title of issue: Should Vaccination for HPV Be Mandated for Teenage Girls?
1. Author and major thesis of the Yes side. The author of Yes side is Joseph E. Balog. The
major thesis of the yes side is that all the young teenage girls should be mandated to take HPV
vaccine that ultimately will result in having a healthy and secure society. To support his claim, he
provides a large number of statistics of young girls who were involved in the sexual relationships
mostly leading them to sad consequences such as cervical cancer.
2. Author and major thesis of the No side. The authors of No sides are Gail Javitt, Deena
Berkowitz, and Lawerence O. Gostin. The major thesis of the No side is that mandating the
vaccination to prevent HPV is not necessary. To back up their claim, they reasoned that so far not
all the results, side effects, and effectiveness of this vaccine are explored or tested. Also, they
believe that instead of mandating this vaccine, it should be by individuals choice.
3. What fallacies of question-framing are made by the authors of the text? None. I couldnt
find any fallacy of question- framing in these pieces.
4. Briefly state in your own words two facts presented by each side.
Yes side: States that 46% of high school students have experienced a sexual relationship before
their graduation and before marriage. 75% of young people have been involved in sexual
relations. Additionally, it states that among adolescent girls, STIs are one of the most famous
issues. According to Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), 3.2 million of
adolescent girls have STIs, and 18.3% are diseased with HPV (Balog, p. 23).
No side: States that since the frequency of the strains in the U.S is low, the majority of women
will be safe from the cancer-causing strain of HPV (Javitt, Berkowitz, Gostin, p.30). Also, they
respect that requiring vaccine for preventing HPV is a great tool for developed countries, but at
the same time they question whether this solution is appropriate for everyone before witnessing
any accepted proof of its results.
5. Briefly state in your own words two opinions presented by each side.
Yes Side: HPV vaccine should be provided to all the people regardless of age, race, and potential
sexual behavior. Providing this vaccine to only a specific group and forbidding it from other
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groups is unfair (Balog, p.24). Every person should have the same opportunities to use this.
Secondly, they have doubt that whether parents or guardians talk to their young children about
the sad consequences of having sexual relationships will reduce the percentage of widespread
HPV disease.
NO side: They believe that requiring compulsory HPV vaccine for all the young girls before
attending school is not crucial. Their reason is that not all children are exposed in a romantic
relationship especially in the classrooms because being in such a relationship is a choice. Also,
they believe obligating this issue would leave the majority of people with high concern and a
terrified feeling for the usage of this vaccine.
6. Briefly identify as many fallacies on the Yes side as you can. Comparing HPV to Polio,
because being infected to HPV is partly voluntary compared to the disease of Polio. Also, the
statement that compulsory vaccine would be better for all the population because how can we
trust a product when we are unsure about its advantages and disadvantages?
7. Briefly identify as many fallacies on the No side as you can. All students attending schools
will have equal chance of transmitting HPV because they are generalizing all the students from
only one perspective. It is optional to have a relationship (excluding rape) and not all students
would be in a sexual relationship.
8. All in all, which author impressed you as being the most empirical in presenting his or
her thesis? Why? At first, I agreed with the yes side, but as I read it deeply I agreed with Javitt,
Berkowita and Gostin on the No side. They give quite reasonable and common facts to support
their points and by doing that they convinced me to change my position. They help the reader to
understand the reasons that using HPV vaccine is not the ultimate secure choice. In the beginning
of the yes side, Balog pointed precious and true points about HPV disease but later he failed to
provide enough information to convince us to accept mandating vaccine by the governments for
the teenage girls. Because of this, I choose the No side as a logical side.
9. Are there any reasons to believe the writers are biased? If so, why do they have these
biases? Yes, I believe that both sides had some biases in their tones. Joseph Balog seems to have
a strong position for his side. Before writing this article, he may have experienced reading many
cases of HPV problems where girls at the very young years were infecting to HPV. Now, based
on his previous background information, he writes more passionately to convey his message to
his readers. Probably, he is trying to stop this problem from happening in the future. Like Balog,
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Javit, Berkowitz, and Gostins were fighting for their sides. They start their position with a strong
title of Who Should Call the Shots? inviting readers to ponder and beware of this issue.
Overall, instead of being emotional like in Yes side, they support their position rationally.
10. Which side (Yes or No) do you personally feel is most correct now that you have
reviewed the material in these articles? Why? Comparing both sides personally, I agree that
the No side is the most correct one. I highly agree that HPV vaccine would be helpful for all the
people around the world especially in the developed countries because it will improve societys
health. However, it is very risky and scary to choose HPV vaccine before its results and
effectiveness are proven.
Generally, I believe that HPV could be transmitted either by male or female and
mandating vaccine only for females will not be helpful. Because of this reason, if we want to
strongly prevent this problem (after sides effects of this vaccine are guaranteed), both females
and males must take this vaccine. But now with this amount of evidence, I think it is very unfair
to mandate this vaccine for all young girls because the long-term result of it is not proved. We
could reduce this problem by friendly talking and awaking our younger children to any
predictable risky costs involved in sexual relationships.

Works Cited
Balog, Joseph E. The Moral Justification for a Compulsory Human Papillomavirus Vaccination
Program. Taking Sides Readings. Ed. 14th. McGraw Hill, 2013. Print.
Javitt, Gail. Berkowitz, Deena. Gostin, Lowernce O. Assessing Mandatory HPV Vaccination:
Who Should Call the Shots? Taking Sides Readings. Ed.14th. McGraw Hill, 2013. Print.