Copyright (c) 2009 James Holan
During the 2007 session of the Texas Legislature, Governor Perry proposed that Texas require girls in middle school to be vaccinated against cervical cancer. According to Governor Perry he simply wanted to be more involved with certain health concerned that are becoming more and more predominate in today's society. Whether this is a good idea or not, is left up to the opinion of the citizens of Texas and by addition the citizens of the state of Texas.
The first, and most major issue, is the fact it is giving the government an insane amount of power. Even now, the government has a right to tell parents what vaccines their children should be required to have to attend school. Although all of the vaccines have been on the market, so to speak, for years some of them are still experimental. Meaning no one really knows how people are going to react to them in later years. Still, even if they are mildly safe, who is to tell a parent whether their children should be vaccinated or not?
A lot of children are actually allergic to vaccines or their parents have previously had a bad reaction to a vaccine. So the parents do not want their child to be endangered by something that is not really necessary. Some parents even refuse vaccines for religious purposes, and some parents do not even realize that they have that right. Very few Texan parents know that they have the right to refuse shots for their children by simply filling out a form that says they, as the child's legal guardian, refuse vaccinations for whatever reason the parents have decided.
This being said, it is probable that even if Governor Perry had imposed the vaccination parents still could have opted out of it, had they known of the form.
Still, is it right to allow the governor this power? After all, does Governor Perry really know what the vaccination is about? The cervical cancer vaccination only covers human papillomavirus, known as HPV. What this means is that the shot will only cover certain things that may lead to cervical cancer. The average Texas citizen probably thinks the shot would cover all forms or complete prevent the cancer, when in fact it only stops HPV something that has been 'known' to cause cervical cancer.
At the same time, the drug was only recently mandated by the FDA, meaning it is not very well tested. The long term affects of the drug are unknown. In this case, why would you give your young daughter something that you do not the long distant ramifications of? For all the public knows this vaccination could lead to problems in the future such as infertility, problems with impregnation, other forms of cancer, or even worse - death.
In the end, parents of all small girls simply need to keep in mind that before they give their child any form of vaccination they must do the proper research. They must inform, themselves and the child about the dangers of cervical cancer and the fact that this vaccination does not protect against most STD's, pregnancy, AIDS, or all forms of cervical cancer. They must be well informed, because without information these young girls might misunderstand what the vaccination is doing and preventing.
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