vegans and vaccines

[Guest guest]

I'm wondering about the vegan stance on vaccines. Vaccines are

typically made using animals including chicken eggs and cell lines

derived from monkeys, dogs, horses, cows, etc., as well as humans. If

you're vegan, do you get vaccinated or not, and why?

 

A related article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=egg-beaters

 

Thanks,

 

Rebecca

Palo Alto

[Guest guest]

It doesn't matter what's in the vaccines - I never take them. I trust my own

immune system, thank you. Eat well and rest when you are tired.

 

good night,

Donna

 

, Rebecca T <rcu> wrote:

>

> I'm wondering about the vegan stance on vaccines. Vaccines are

> typically made using animals including chicken eggs and cell lines

> derived from monkeys, dogs, horses, cows, etc., as well as humans. If

> you're vegan, do you get vaccinated or not, and why?

>

> A related article:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=egg-beaters

>

> Thanks,

>

> Rebecca

> Palo Alto

>

[Guest guest]

Like Donna, I do trust my fruit-and-veggie-fortified immune system, and I don't

take flu vaccines, but I did have the regular polio/measles/rumps/rubella types

of vaccines when I was a kid. And I do keep my tetanus vaccine up to date,

especially when I travel out of the country. I haven't questioned what is in

the vaccines. I am reading the Animal Activist's Handbook by Matt Ball and

Bruce Friedrich (of Vegan Outreach and PETA), and they advise against taking a

" purist " approach to veganism. They say that the way to prevent the most

suffering to animals is to go vegan with the big stuff, like your three meals of

food per day. My interpretation is that they would advise you not to stress

about the tiny amount of animal product that is in a tetanus booster that you

might take once every 10 years (or whatever the interval is), or a polio vaccine

that your child receives only once in a lifetime.

 

Here's a quote from the book (p. 56):

 

" The goal can't be to totally eliminate animal suffering; the goal must be to

make choices that cause the least harm. Obviously, that will mean never

consuming the products for which animals are raised: meat, eggs, and dairy. But

if whey or 'natural butter flavor' is in the 'less than two percent' category on

an ingredient list, the connection to cruelty, while perhaps uncomfortable and

aesthetically questionable, is negligible and is probably no more, calorie for

calorie, than many 'vegan' foods. "

 

Another thing they say (p. 59):

 

" ... if you choose to adopt a vegan diet, there's not much value in avoiding

every possible animal product, just the obvious ones for which an animal was

bred and eventually killed. Some vegetarians avoid all they can as a symbolic

gesture or because they're disgusted by the idea of consuming any animal

products intentionally, but as the meat, dairy, and egg industries fade away, so

will the minuscule amount of animal products or by-products. "

 

No doubt there are lots of different opinions on this.

 

Take care,

Rachel D.

San Francisco

 

 

, " intheveganhood " <govegan wrote:

>

> It doesn't matter what's in the vaccines - I never take them. I trust my own

immune system, thank you. Eat well and rest when you are tired.

>

> good night,

> Donna

>

> , Rebecca T <rcuthomas@> wrote:

> >

> > I'm wondering about the vegan stance on vaccines. Vaccines are

> > typically made using animals including chicken eggs and cell lines

> > derived from monkeys, dogs, horses, cows, etc., as well as humans. If

> > you're vegan, do you get vaccinated or not, and why?

> >

> > A related article:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=egg-beaters

> >

> > Thanks,

> >

> > Rebecca

> > Palo Alto

> >

>