If you are a vegetarian, and doctor order you the <span title="medicine(glocotamine,shell,fish">medicine(glocotamine,shel...</span> etc.).Will you eat it?

Question

If you are a vegetarian, and doctor order you the medicine(glocotamine,shel... etc.).Will you eat it?

Answer 1

My human rights are in jeopardy when I am forced to either consume something that is against my morals or face serious health consequences.

If my health is seriously threatened, then yes. But not before considering all alternatives. When it comes down to your life, you have to preserve yourself. You can&#039;t fight for animal rights if you&#039;re dead! You can even use it as an oppurtunity to do some good - write to the MP, the newspapers, saying that it&#039;s not fair that you have to consume animal ingredients and animal-tested medicines in order to be healthy, it&#039;s against human rights and animal rights!

Luckily, I am a very healthy individual and can find natural alternatives to most minor health complaints I come across. E.g. vinegar and salt baths for athlete&#039;s foot, burning with matches for warts etc.

I wouldn&#039;t consider a vegan a hypocrit if they receive medicine in order to keep themselves healthy or alive. The idea is that you cut back on the negative impact to other living beings as much as you humanly can. It&#039;s not some false ideology about rainbows and butterflies. We all have to live in reality. I cause animal deaths, too, by the harvesting of the crops I eat, but I cause far, far less deaths than your average meat-eater, by more than ten-fold.

Answer 2

I think most vegetarians would ask for a suitable alternative first. If none exists, then personal values judgment, and choice comes to play.

Many vegetarians do it for health reasons, not necessarily animal rights or religion. .

Answer 3

I discuss everything with my doctor. If he insisted on a course of medication I would take it. I trust my doctor and if you don&#039;t trust yours, why not get a doctor you do trust.

Answer 4

Being vegetarian or vegan is about minimising your personal contribution to animal suffering and exploitation as much as you reasonably can.

Risking your own health and life is not required.

For many veg*ns, the answer would probably be that it depended what the medicine was for. For a minor ailment, most would decline medication that contained animal products.

For major and life-threatening illnesses and injuries, there is probably nobody who wouldn&#039;t take the required medicine. Anyone who claims they wouldn&#039;t has never been in such a situation.

I&#039;m vegan; every day I take a drug that contains lactose and probably other animal by products. For me, this drug is potentially life-saving, it decreases the chance of a recurrence of cancer. Taking it doesn&#039;t make me any less of a vegan - at least according to the man who coined the word and defined its meaning, and that&#039;s good enough for me.

All medication has been tested on animals, by law. The same arguments apply.