The HPV Jab: All over the country, schoolgirls from Year 8 upwards have been receiving the HPV vaccination, to protect them against the virus which is thought to cause cervical cancer.

However, there have been numerous complaints and worries about the vaccine, after a fourteen year old girl died soon after receiving the injection. Natalie Morton attended the Blue Coat Church of England School, in Coventry, and was believed to have died as a result of the vaccine.

However, it soon emerged that Natalie had an underlying health condition that caused her death. ‘It appears that Natalie died from a tumour in her chest involving her heart and her lungs." The condition, it is understood, had become progressively disabling.’ The deputy coroner in Coventry informed the girl’s parents.

Even so, suspicions about the HPV vaccine remain, and many children were forbidden from having it. This means that they would not be protected against the virus that causes cervical cancer, so they are more likely to contract the virus or the disease.

Shouldn’t they be allowed to make their own decisions about this, though? After all, it is their life that will be affected by having, or not having the jab, and their life that is at risk.

What do you think? Should children as young as twelve be allowed to make decisions that might affect their future? Or should these decisions be made for them, something that they may resent in the future? What would you do?