Everyone has the right to decide what to put in their bodies, but a 17-year-old girl from Port St. Joe, Fla., is facing possible deportation for refusing a Gardasil vaccine.
Simone Davis refuses to take the vaccine on religious grounds because her devoutly Christian adoptive family believes that taking a vaccine preventing human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease, implies that she is sexually active.
Because the United States requires female immigrants between the ages of 11 and 26 to receive a Gardasil shot before they can become citizens, Davis will be deported to her native England if she continues to refuse vaccination.
Facing deportation may be the furthest extreme any teenage girl has gone to in order to convince her parents of her virginity. However, regardless of the motive, the federal government should not be allowed to mandate a vaccine on anyone.
Religion aside, Gardasil is known to cause side effects such as paralysis and seizures. So even if it is fallacious to assume that taking a Gardasil shot suggests sexual promiscuity, Davis and her family have other legitimate reasons to be wary of getting the vaccine.
We wonder why Gardasil shots aren't mandatory for natural-born citizens if the need to administer them is so great. We also wonder how the government can mandate a shot that helps prevent cervical cancer, a disease that would only afflict the individual who refused to take preventative measures.
At its best, mandating a vaccine is an infringement of personal liberty. At its worst, it's eugenics. Under no circumstance should the United States make this unnecessary, potentially dangerous vaccination mandatory.
