Praised cancer vaccine beset by critics.(cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil)

Byline: Fred Tasker

Feb. 21--Cervical cancer is expected to strike about 11,000 U.S. females this year. A new vaccine, Gardasil, made by Merck & Co., approved by the FDA and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is touted as being able to prevent 70 percent of the cases.

So why not -- as the Florida Legislature and 19 other state legislatures are considering -- require the vaccine for all 11- and 12-year-old girls?

"It's a wonderful and important vaccine, and we're excited it's available," says Dr. Lee Sanders, a pediatrician with a private practice at the University of Miami.

Nonetheless, mandatory use of the vaccine is meeting growing resistance -- from religious groups, civil libertarians and vaccine-watchdog groups.

Some argue that there already are too many vaccines, too little study and too much government coercion. They say legislators shouldn't mandate a vaccine whose approval was fast-tracked by the Food and Drug Administration -- approved in just six months, compared to much longer tests for many other drugs.

Others ask why the Legislature should require people to get a vaccine for a disease that is not casually contagious but is spread through sexual contact.

Enough questions have arisen that state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, Senate sponsor of the bill calling for vaccinations, favors putting off the mandatory stipulation until August 2008.

"I want to give…