A Pre-Medial Vegan, yeah, don't say it I already know what you're thinking. Impossible.
But it makes perfect sense in my mind. Both of these things are rooted in the protection of life. No, I haven't grown up thinking this way all of my life. In fact for a large majority of my life, consuming animals never really phased my mind. As with most things in life, experience gave way to understanding. The continuous hours I'd spend volunteering at animal shelters and my love for documentaries helped me make the connection. Pursuing medicine was something I always wanted to do, many who do pursue it share the same motivation: helping people. What better way than with the preservation of their life?
The only problem about pursuing medicine is the process to get to that point. What I mean by that is that the practice of medicine is rooted in the abuse of animals for the most part. A large majority of our medical procedures, treatments, and drugs are initially tried on animals. It's standard protocol and government mandated for all legal practice of medicine. In order to ensure its safety on humans, we must first quality test on animals.
Obviously, this doesn't sit very well with me, but both my life and the people I love are here because of it. From open-heart surgeries to diabetes to chemotherapy to malaria, the list goes on. All of those things were once in clinical trials tested on things ranging from rats to cows. Even some of the most successful heart valve transplants today make use of either porcine (pig) or bovine (cow) valves.
Potentially, artificial testing could be implemented in the future, but in order for this to occur, a solid and accurate foundation must be set first. And even with that, living tissue is simply hard to predict. The rate of evolution and the changing environment are all factors that alter the way organisms work.
Personally, it's a major confliction and I'm trying not to think about it, but the issue still remains apparent. But at the end of the day, I know if I had to make a choice between rejecting a treatment because it was once tested on animals or save someone I love, I would go with the latter.
Whether or not there is such a thing as necessary evil or not will continue to be a question, but I think it ultimately depends on if you're doing as much as you can to reduce the suffering that exists in the world.
