摘要：This Article examines the question of whether the HPV vaccine should be mandated (for girls and/or boys) in the context of declining rates of childhood immunization and the potential threat to public health that this decline poses.20 The Article addresses two interconnected legal issues: first, whether mandating vaccines to prevent the spread of disease is constitutional under substantive due process and equal protection principles, and second, whether parents should be permitted to “opt out” of mandatory vaccination on their children’s behalf, either for all vaccines or those which prevent particular diseases. The Article addresses these issues in the context of America’s growing concern about the risks to children’s health and considers how our society’s scientific literacy (or lack thereof) affects the response to risk.
