Vegans and Pharmaceuticals

[ThePotager]

Curious at a vegans view on taking pharmaceuticals. Almost all medication has gone through preclinical testing on animals in order for it to be safe for human clinical trials.

So if you are a vegan, do you take medication e.g for asthma, cancer, etc etc

As a vegan, I go by the vegan society definition in that I seek to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.

If a vegan treatment isn’t available and it is necessary, then it’s not possible or practical to not use it. Many treatments aren’t new and therefore no more testing on animals is needed for people to use them anyway.

Being vegan isn’t perfect. Nothing is.

I'd echo pp above.

Same goes for baby formula - I'm on a vegan parenting group and it's seen as absolutely fine to use non vegan formula if necessary (most contain either dairy or fish oil).

@LaNuitPorteConseil , that was a pretty perfect response to another ‘gotcha’ question. Thanks.

Yes most vegans I know take a pragmatic view, they won't use cosmetics or anything unnecessary tested on animals, and if there's an alternative that's cruelty or animal testing free then they'll use that but it's not really possible in modern life to avoid it completely and if it was a case of life saving treatment I don't think many would decline. If we're being honest even in the apparently more simple dietary area, even if you eat strictly plant based some animals likely will have been harmed as a result of food production whether that's culling of rodents that destroy vegetable crops, use of pesticides or even roadkill of the trucks that ship produce around. You can only do what you can do at the end of the day, it doesn't mean the whole vegan endeavour is invalid or illogical...

This.

I'm a vegan and will take whatever medication I need. Medicine is essential but eating meat, dairy etc isn't. Veganism isn't all or nothing, it's doing your best in a non-vegan world.

What point are you going for here @ThePotager?

Are you trying to “gotcha” vegans and then call them hypocrites or tell them there is no point in veganism because they use cancer treatments? Or are you going to say they should all die from treatable illnesses if they want to be vegan?

It is better for the planet to be vegan. It’s better for health in a lot of ways. It’s a personal choice which DOES NOT AFFECT YOU. It’s better to be as vegan as possible. It isn’t possible to avoid medicines if you need them. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be vegan or can’t call yourself vegan.

So, what are you trying to achieve here?

I always think it’s best to answer as if a person is coming from a genuine place of curiosity when these sorts of things are asked. At least until they show me otherwise anyway. 😉

Interesting. I ask because I used to work for a pharmaceutical company that was regularly targeted by animal rights demonstrators. They would stand outside the gates and hurl abuse. One of the demonstrators was often seen puffing on their inhaler which we all found pretty ironic considering one of the companies specialisms was respiratory meds.

I have no beef with veganism (sorry😅) or animal rights. It's horrible that animals have to be tested on, even for lifesaving treatments.

genuinely interested in views, but think what you will🙄

Having to use an inhaler doesn’t mean the person wouldn’t like animal testing to stop, so it’s not really that ironic.

I think you’re looking for an argument.

As I said previously, nothing is perfect.

Well, to be fair there's a difference between believing that too many/unnecessary pharmaceuticals are tested on animals and that not enough is being done to reduce or eliminate the need for animal testing, or that (some) pharmaceutical companies are unnecessarily cruel or don't adhere to high enough welfare standards for their laboratory animals, both of which are legitimate grounds for protest, and believing that people ought to die or have serious health problems that could be avoided by using existing medications that have been tested on animals. No excuse for being egregiously abusive of course and of course the rhetoric tends to the extreme ('ban lab rats' is a better slogan than 'only use lab rats where carefully and objectively justified and where you can guarantee the highest possible welfare standards') but I do think your protestor wasn't necessarily 100% hypocritical either...

I agree with the pragmatic poster above.

I'm a vegan who works writing content for pharmaceutical companies. People get very confused by me 😂

I have only met one vegan who asked questions about medication being vegan/not animal tested and they had a severe eating disorder.

I will always choose medication that doesn’t contain animal products where possible as I think most vegans would. Medications will have been tested on animals at some point to be in the market.

I did grimace once when given antibiotics containing pork gelatin. That's vegetarians and vegans and Muslims and Jews out..... mind you I suppose beef gelatin is equally grim to Hindus.