Rick Perry, the Cancer Victim and the HPV Controversy (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a candidate for president of the United States, has gotten into some political trouble for an executive order he signed mandating that prepubescent girls be vaccinated against HPV, which can cause cervical cancer.

During the CNN/Tea Party debate in Tamp, Florida, Rep. Michele Bachmann waxed wroth about Perry ordering "government needles" to be stuck in "little girls." Bachmann and Sarah Palin have suggested that Perry's decision may have been influenced by a campaign contribution from Merck, the drug's manufacturer, and the fact that a former chief of staff of his had become a Merck lobbyist. Merck is the only manufacturer for Gardasil, the vaccine in question.

Perry himself has suggested that his executive order was a mistake and that he should have gone through the Texas legislature to enact a vaccination program. The Texas legislature eventually reversed his executive order and ended the program.

Ted Oberg of Houston's Channel 13 News suggests that Perry's motives were a great deal more benign than the quest for political gain. Oberg tells the story of a friend of Perry's, a Houston woman named Heather Buchram, who was dying of cervical cancer around the time Perry's executive order was creating a controversy in Austin. She became an activist for letting the order stand and, even though her efforts eventually failed, became a friend of Perry's up until near the end of her life.

The story of Heather Buchram is interesting in that it provides a human face to a political controversy that pitted freedom of choice against preserving human life and is now being used by Perry's political opponents to attack him. It is a common belief that many politicians are soulless creatures, motivated by political advantage, without a hint of human feeling. But this story suggests that Perry was motivated by a genuine concern for human life, which ironically caused him to behave in a way that turned out to not be to his political advantage at all.

Indeed had he gone through the legislature to create a vaccination program, instead of simply mandating it by executive order, the plan could have been vetted and altered with safeguards, making participation more voluntary than mandatory. At the same time the debate would have served as a way to educate Texans on the dangers of HPV caused cervical cancer, gaining wider acceptance for the program.

Perry may or may not be faulted on his motives. But he can certainly, as he himself now recognizes, be faulted on his methods. It is not enough for someone in power to believe a policy is right. He must convince enough people that it is right. The legislative process, done with transparency, is a vehicle for that persuasion process.

That is a lesson that anyone in public office should pay attention to.

Texas resident Mark Whittington writes about state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110915/us_ac/9131069_rick_perry_the_cancer_victim_and_the_hpv_controversy

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