ancientjaguar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lady_kishiria) wrote2007-02-05 02:05 pm
lady_kishiria) wrote2007-02-05 02:05 pm
Entry tags:
A reason NOT to move to Texas
I grant, there are a few, but this one is new.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16975112/wid/11915773?GT1=9033
The governor there is demanding that all schoolgirls receive the new HPV vaccine. Now, I've been hoping for this vaccination for years and was overjoyed when it came out although AFAIK I'm too old to receive it. However, some politician telling parents that their daughter MUST have it sets every civil-liberties alarm in my mind to screaming.
People are arguing that it's no different than the smallpox, polio, and measles vaccines. Some parents would argue that making those mandatory impinges on their rights to raise their children, and since I've read some scary things on those vaccines I must say I'm undecided.
There is one clear difference between the above mentioned diseases and Gardasil. Those diseases are transmitted through air, water (such as in a swimming pool), or touching something an infected person has touched. HPV is usually (not always) sexually transmitted, and this has further implications to parents.
I come from a Latino family where, even Americanized as they were, my purity was very much the pillar of the family's "honour". (This, by the way, is where my much-discussed hatred of the whole concept of "honour" comes from.) I know my parents, my mother especially, would have objected to the implication that I'd be sleeping around at the age of 11. Where would my parents' rights over me be?
I know that when I was 11, the idea of being forced to have this vaccine would have outraged and upset me. I was a very pious child, with further complications stemming from an obvious case of sexual identity dysphoria, and I would have seen the clear implications that they were expecting I'd do "it" with a boy. Where would MY rights to my own body be?
Lastly, the vaccine has only been on the market a few months, so it's unknown if there are any side effects. Some should be expected; even the standard ones have them. That in and of itself would make me as a parent hesitant to have my daughter innoculated.
When I first heard of the vaccine, I pictured it as something older teens and young women would take voluntarily. Making it mandatory for middle-school girls feels like violation, not liberation. From Gardasil it's a short jump to birth control, and while I support making birth control easily available to all who need it, making it mandatory would be disgusting and wrong.
It took a while to fully articulate why this story bothers me so much. I'm looking forward to whatlibertarianhawk in particular has to say about it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16975112/wid/11915773?GT1=9033
The governor there is demanding that all schoolgirls receive the new HPV vaccine. Now, I've been hoping for this vaccination for years and was overjoyed when it came out although AFAIK I'm too old to receive it. However, some politician telling parents that their daughter MUST have it sets every civil-liberties alarm in my mind to screaming.
People are arguing that it's no different than the smallpox, polio, and measles vaccines. Some parents would argue that making those mandatory impinges on their rights to raise their children, and since I've read some scary things on those vaccines I must say I'm undecided.
There is one clear difference between the above mentioned diseases and Gardasil. Those diseases are transmitted through air, water (such as in a swimming pool), or touching something an infected person has touched. HPV is usually (not always) sexually transmitted, and this has further implications to parents.
I come from a Latino family where, even Americanized as they were, my purity was very much the pillar of the family's "honour". (This, by the way, is where my much-discussed hatred of the whole concept of "honour" comes from.) I know my parents, my mother especially, would have objected to the implication that I'd be sleeping around at the age of 11. Where would my parents' rights over me be?
I know that when I was 11, the idea of being forced to have this vaccine would have outraged and upset me. I was a very pious child, with further complications stemming from an obvious case of sexual identity dysphoria, and I would have seen the clear implications that they were expecting I'd do "it" with a boy. Where would MY rights to my own body be?
Lastly, the vaccine has only been on the market a few months, so it's unknown if there are any side effects. Some should be expected; even the standard ones have them. That in and of itself would make me as a parent hesitant to have my daughter innoculated.
When I first heard of the vaccine, I pictured it as something older teens and young women would take voluntarily. Making it mandatory for middle-school girls feels like violation, not liberation. From Gardasil it's a short jump to birth control, and while I support making birth control easily available to all who need it, making it mandatory would be disgusting and wrong.
It took a while to fully articulate why this story bothers me so much. I'm looking forward to what
libertarianhawk in particular has to say about it.
no subject
The main issue everyone has with this vaccine is that it *could possibly* be associated with sexual activity. The fact that someone is trying to dictate what people do with their own bodies in even a remote way relating to the reproductive organs is a hot spot that sets people off. If this were for any other form of cancer, people would be all for someone having it be a requirement to get into school. It's just like the flu shot, Hep A, Hep B, and numerous other vaccines, this one just has an effect on a disease that happens to be sexually transmitted.
I wonder if you would feel the same if there were a preventative medicine to stop HIV in its sexually transmitted form...
I'm not for or against it, because it doesn't affect me or anyone of my gender, but the fact that it immediately sounds like a bad idea just because it's reproductive in nature sounds like a knee jerk reaction to me.
* sits down and waits for the change on his 2 cents*
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Yes, I would.
And you do have someone who could be affected: Little Vixen.
Welcome to my LJ, you sure chose a whopper entry to join in!
no subject
Like I said, I'm not particularly for or against it, as it doesn't affect me, and I prefer to leave the feminine health-care issues up to DV. If she were against it, I would most certainly not have Little Vixen get the vaccine.
Fair warning, I tend to argue the "Flat Earth" point of view when speaking with people taking a more liberal standpoint. Just like I argue the liberal side when speaking with Fundies. Makes life more interesting when playing devil's advocate. Also helps me and others develop our own beliefs more thoroughly.
no subject
Unless they come up with something bad, I want her to have the vaccine. But women in my family have HAD cervical cancer. And uterine cancer. And ovarian cancer. (But not, surprisingly, breast cancer.)
As far as vaccinating everyone else, I'm not sure where I stand on making it mandatory, because I do see the issues on both sides. I do agree with
DV