Is giving your daughter a shot to prevent cancer going to turn her into a slut? No, watching MTV will do that.

A federal advisory committee is expected to decide by the end of the month whether the first-ever vaccine to prevent most cases of cervical cancer, approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, should be given to all girls before they have sex and are potentially exposed to the virus that causes the cancer.

A recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices would not make the vaccine, Gardasil, mandatory -- it is up to states to determine whether a vaccine should be required for school attendance. In California, making the vaccine mandatory would require new legislation.

But physicians note that parents may be troubled by giving their young daughters a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease, and several conservative groups, while supporting the vaccine, said they would challenge efforts to make immunization mandatory.

"It's going to take a little time to get used to," said Dr. Jacob Lalezari, a UCSF physician who conducted tests of the vaccine on Bay Area volunteers. "The dads may be inclined to look at their young daughters as asexual creatures, but moms will understand. Moms have been going to gynecologists. They've had it ingrained in them that it's serious."

Here let me put this into perspective for you.

"Dad I am pregnant," Or "Honey our daughter is dying of cancer!"

Which one would you rather hear?

If there is a way to keep my child from getting hurt or sick I will take it everytime.

This same argument is used to keep teenagers off of birth control. Yet I have always felt that, since we all know teenagers are going to make huge mistakes, that it is our responsibilty to help minimize the impact of those mistakes. I would much rather comfort my daughter after she got her heart broken by the boy who had sex with her and then dumped her, then to have to help her decide how to handle an unwanted pregnancy.

By the way my daughter is 19 years old now and I manged to avoid all of this drama. Pheeww!