This is a question that I see asked a lot on online forums. There seems to be this (rather toxic) attitude to veganism that it is an ‘all or nothing’ approach, which is obviously not always suitable. It also isn’t helpful. If you feel that you are able to completely avoid animal products in every aspect of your life, then that is great, but for the vast majority of us this is just not practical. Am I meant to avoid getting into my friend’s car if they have leather seats? Am I meant to avoid shopping at stores that sell animal products?
According to The Vegan Society, the definition of veganism is:
Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks 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; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.
My key thing to point out here is ‘as far as is possible and practical’ – in every aspect of life, it is important to remember that you can only do so much, but doing something is always better than doing nothing. There is no such thing as The Perfect Vegan.
Medication seems to be a real sticking point for a lot of people as to why they are hesitant to go vegan. Now I am someone who is, for the most part, a pretty healthy person: I don’t have any chronic illnesses, I very rarely catch a cold, and I am generally in pretty decent health. Of course I could really fine tune some areas so I am healthier, but on the whole I am not someone who gets sick often or needs constant medication for any sort of illness. But with that being said, this last week and a bit I have been fighting off the most horrendous chest infection that seemed to come out of nowhere – I woke up one day with this horrible, hacking cough, and basically had to sleep upright on my sofa for four days straight because I was unable to lie down without choking. I am definitely over the worst of it – I am able to lie down to sleep (finally!) and only have a little residual cough first thing in the morning – but during that time, I did take some medication to help ease the symptoms and actually allow me to function.
Which I think is key. Whilst I am someone who is pretty healthy, I am also not someone who believes that you should ‘power through’ every illness without any sort of medication to help. If I have a cold, I am definitely taking paracetamol to help settle my headaches and aches and pains. If I have pulled a muscle at the gym, I might take a painkiller to help ease my movements. When it comes to spring/summer time, I am dosed up on anti-histamine medication almost every day as without this medication, my hay fever can be so bad that I literally cannot breathe because my airways are so irritated, or I can’t see because my eyes are just streaming. But this also applies for long term medications: I get the various vaccination when I need to, and I take a regular birth control medication. And again, I am not someone who lives with a chronic health condition and even I cannot avoid medications. Well…I could…but honestly it would impact my quality of life to such a degree that I would likely not be able to do much else.
I feel it is very damaging to even suggest that someone is not ‘truly vegan’ if they have to take medication, for whatever reason. The whole point of veganism is to make the active effort to do as little harm as is practical and possible, and that will look very different from person to person. If you are someone who needs regular medication in order to function – be this due to a physical illness or a mental illness – but are still doing your best each day to follow a vegan lifestyle to the best of your ability, then you are vegan. There is no such thing as a Perfect Vegan and this is a narrative that I personally find incredibly damaging to the movement, as well as just a really mean thing to say to someone who is doing their best.
I have seen debates online where it is suggested that vegans should be looking for vegan medications to use instead, however I think that is actually a very high ask. For the most part, all medications (at least in the UK) have been tested on animals at some point of their production. Whilst there are some movements in place to make the use of animals for scientific research unnecessary, these movements are still very new and the scientific industry is not really ready for these sorts of discussions. Steps are being taken, as I say, but this is going to be quite a lengthy process (as with all aspects of animal exploitation) and it is again very unreasonable to request that people avoid taking medication until animal exploitation is completely removed from the production line. If you need medication for your depression, as without it you cannot leave your bed (or worse), then asking you to wait for a vegan version of your medication is cruel and unreasonable. It is also unreasonable for someone to take a vegan medication just because it is vegan friendly even if it actually doesn’t help the situation. If you have tried multiple different medications to combat an issue, and the only one that allows you to truly function as a human being is non-vegan, then take the medication. To use the very popular analogy, you have to put your oxygen mask on first before you can help anyone else put theirs on. Veganism – and really any other social justice issue – is no exception.
Taylor Talks Vegan 