HPV Vaccination, Essay Example

If I were a Texas Senator, I would not vote for mandatory HPV vaccination because i think that the decision of whether a girl is vaccinated or not rests on the parent and not the state or politicians. One of the main reasons why Rick Perry is keen on the legislation is because he has benefited from campaign donations from the pharmaceutical giant Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil vaccine that protects against majority of the HPVs that cause cervical cancer (Elliot, 2007). Additionally, former chief of staff for the governor was a lobbyist for Merck; therefore, supporting the legislation is yielding to corporate pressure and not to the needs of Texan women. The opposition by the Governor in using 165,000 teens as a study group for the pharmaceutical company is also another reason for not supporting the legislation. It is apparent that the effect of the vaccine on young girls is not known; therefore, the Governor’s position is misjudged. The effectiveness of a vaccine is based on clinical trials, and in this case, there were none on the target population.

Aside from the political reasons of not supporting the bill, the lack of sufficient studies to determine the impact of the vaccine on the fertility of young girls is my compelling reason of opposing the legislation. The vaccine targets 11-year-old girls, a group that is still in the developmental stage, and the absence of in-depth studies on the long-term effects of the vaccine makes it a risky venture (Elliott, 2007). Related to this point is that HPV is a sexually transmitted virus, and vaccinating the young girls against it may encourage premarital sex in the end. Preventing cervical cancer is important, but parents must be involved in making the decisions for their daughters and politics must be eradicated from the issue.

Reference

Elliott, J. (2007). Reluctant governor yields on HPV shots: Calling a veto useless, Perry chides legislators for opposing his vaccination order. The Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4787541.html