Mandatory Vaccinations

There are plenty of people becoming smarter as time goes on and do get tested every 6 months. Condoms are a good form of protection against STI's. Suggesting abstinence is not stupid because it's the only thing that's 100% effective in preventing STI's. Realistic? Probably not. Suggesting that it's stupid to suggest abstaining, is ignorant in itself.

Yet is it reasonable to expect your partner to be one of those "smarties"? Perhaps it works for you and your genius daughters (until it decides not to work anymore, but I digress) to place their safety in other people's hands -- guys, no less -- I thought it would be reasonable to expect other skeptics to rely on nobody but themselves.

Also, abstinence is like starving one's self off out of fear for food poisoning. To expect growing teenagers not to make mistakes is both unrealistic and unproductive at best; it could also be detrimental to their later independent lives, depending on your point of view. I don't mean to butt into your parenting business, but instead of telling my children they have to be perfect from now till the moment of their last breath, I'd rather be lurking behind the scene to cushion their fall, and help them learn from that.

I suppose each parent would draw their own line here though. There are holes you should never ever fall into (heroin, for example), and it's up to the parents and their own children to figure out which would be reasonably inevitable and which anyone should absolutely steer clear of.

EDIT: I just realized I got this thread confused with madanthony.