Its no secret that many schools require their students to take shots. All colleges require shots for students who plan on living on campus, but what if a shot decided not just whether you were allowed to live on campus but if you were allowed to live in the country. It may sound weird but female immigrants are now required to receive a Gardasil vaccine to stay in the country, as shown in a recent article from ABC News:
“Born in Britain in 1992, Simone Davis got off to a rough start in life. Her biological mother abandoned her as a baby, and her father couldn't care for her.
"At 3, her paternal grandmother Jean Davis got court orders giving her complete parental rights and responsibility to raise Simone until the age of 18.
"Davis married an American in 2000 and moved them to Port St. Joe, Fla., but there was no equivalent guardianship in the United States. So for the last near decade, Davis has embarked on a quest to get Simone U.S. citizenship.
"Now 17 and an aspiring elementary school teacher and devout Christian, Simone has only one thing standing in the way of her goal -- the controversial vaccine Gardasil.
Immigration law mandates that Simone get the vaccine to protect against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, which has been linked to cervical cancer.
"But Simone, who has taken a virginity pledge and is not sexually active, doesn't see why she should have to take the vaccine, especially since it's been under fire recently regarding its safety.
"And none of her American classmates is mandated by law to be vaccinated.
"'I am only 17 years old and planning to go to college and not have sex anytime soon,' said Simone. 'There is no chance of getting cervical cancer, so there's no point in getting the shot.'"
You can read the full story here.
My question to the reader is: Do you think this should be a mandatory shot, or do you think the government shouldn’t be allowed to force someone to receive a vaccination?
I had no idea they made this vaccine mandatory for immigrants! You would think that if, as long as its not a shot for preventing a life threatening infectious condition (ex polio..measles), that a moral/religious reason for abstaining from the shot would be enough. Really, all this "mandatory" shot thing would be doing is possibly guarding the individual immigrants from cervical cancer...not Americans...Important/mandatory??
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is fair to force certain people to get the shot, but not others. Why can we as a country be at liberty to say 'you have to get this shot', while the person next to you 'doesn't'?
ReplyDelete