Q6. Does Jainism allow the usage of animals for medical research?
This is an important question that has very compelling perspectives for both sides, for and against the use of animals for medical research. Animals, from fruit fly to the mouse, are widely used in research. From Jain principles perspective, this question is straightforward, however, it can quickly become complicated in the current environment/lifestyle and also as we start hypothesizing scenarios.
Many factors come into consideration with using animals for testing/research:
- Should we use animals solely for human benefit? It is ethical/moral?
- If we don’t use animals, then how would we develop new treatments for deadly diseases? For Humans as well as for animal treatment?
- Animals and Humans don’t react the same way then is testing really useful/necessary?
- With animal testing, there is definite pain and suffering for animals, whereas there is uncertainty in benefits for humans
- What about new computer systems, mathematical model, human tissue, cell culture? What about using cadavers (human dead bodies) for research?
- Are there other alternatives to using animals?
These perspectives also vary with individual backgrounds, belief system and experiences in life.
What is Jainism Perspective?
Using animals for any kind of research involves a lot of violence, exploitation and cruelty. It is a gruesome and cruel industry. Nowadays a huge number of animals are used in many types or research/testing: medicines, cosmetics, vaccines, agricultural, household materials, aeronautic, automotive, behavioral, consumer product testing etc. And these animals are subjected to horrifically painful experiments. Tens of millions of animals are used for testing every year, and it is just an approximation, since animal testing labs are not required by law to disclose the number of animals used for testing.
From Jainism perspective, any kind of exploitation/use of animals is violence towards those animals and is not allowed. And there are no exceptions to the principles in our scripture. If any exceptions are allowed in our literature, then people will find ways to exploit it. Once there is a leeway, people get a tendency towards using animals for their benefit and it can become a problematic situation.
What if the human race is at stake?
Amongst all the living beings, grown-up human beings possess a fully developed mind and human beings are the only ones who can do meditation and ultimately attain self-realization and liberation. So, if the entire human race is at stake then one must do whatever minimum is required, with Jain Acharaya’s permission, for the survival of the human race. We can protect ourselves but not have aggression (an example of aggression would let me destroy other before someone is going to attack me).
What can we do at an individual level?
From a spiritual perspective, we should follow the path of minimum violence, do what is absolutely required for individual survival. We should not waste the human life, make the best of our human life and use every moment for our spiritual upliftment (i.e. reduce our Kashayas and eliminate Mithyatva).
Now we have the information, we need to internalize the information, verify/test it with our experience, make it our own and then use it to make decisions that are right for us.
From a practical perspective, at the individual level, we need to stop/avoid/minimize using any products that involve cruelty. We need to do the due diligence of gaining as much information as we can about everything that we use/consume and ensure that they are cruelty free. Plus, nowadays given technology/internet, we can do the required research efficiently and find cruelty free alternatives for all the products. There are cruelty free alternatives for vitamins and medicines too.
Vaccines have been in ethical controversy for long, many vaccines also have animal by-products in them and hence it is not that straightforward. Some people take regular vaccines, and some opt for non-vaccination/religious exemption. For vaccines or any life-threatening diseases, we need to gain as much information as possible and then use our wisdom to decide at an individual level.
In summary, we have to look at the purpose/objective from a holistic point of view and use our own wisdom to make a decision by applying Jain principles in our current environment. Please remember that under any situation, if we exploit animals there is big consequence and if we use them very minimum for our survival, the consequences to us is minimum.
References:
I agree. There is no justification for causing the suffering of even one animal to develop medical products for our survival.
ReplyDeleteIf a group of aliens who are superior to us were to come to this planet and capture us humans to run experiments, we would be fearful and feel suffering. They could justify it as something that helps them but that would still not be right.
Even if our existence becomes a question mark, We have no business deciding on whether other lives should die,h experimented,w be it the life of humans or animals.
ReplyDeleteTaking Acharya permission is a very lame argument.
Before killing animals do we think they will become extinc? so if for disease purpose and other reasons if there is a risk to human life so be it. Let us face this life like animals are facing
If you or your child, wife or someone close to you gets Malaria or some viral infection, would you show mercy on millions and millions or parasites or viruses in your body or would you choose to take medicine to get rid of them?
DeleteHi.there are other ways of dealing with these scenarios.
DeleteAre you familiar with compost heaps? You throw your kitchen scraps on a compost heap and get compost. It happens because of the bacteria and fungi digesting your kitchen scraps.
Then you dig the compost in your garden and plant your seeds, seedlings and plants in the same compost! They are in intimate contact with the same bacteria and fungi yet they not only don’t get destroyed but grow stronger!
The secret is that nature knows that the kitchen scraps need returning to the ground.
Its not the bugs but that that they have a job to do to keep nature running.
Now as someone who hasn’t had any antibiotics, antivirals or antifungals or ibuprofen or paracetamol or antiseptic creams etc since 1979 I feel personally qualified to say its possible. I’ve also traveled all over without taking any anti malaria drugs or vaccines!
Further my background training is as a pharmacist. Most of medicine only treats symptoms. Too much acid - antacids, inflammation - anti inflammatory drugs, pain - pain killers.... etc etc. They never ask WHY are things happening?
I now work as a NatureCure practitioner.
Interested? -look at NatureCure.Co.Uk
Every food, medical, pesticide product that is not GRAS (generally regarded as safe) needs to to be tested according to FDA or EPA protocols by animal trials and possibly by human clinical trials before they can be lawfully marketed in this country. It is practically impossible to not use products that have been so tested. This is an ethical dilemma for Jains who do not believe in survival at the expense of other lives.
ReplyDeleteEveryone will agree that exterminating mosquitos to prevent malaria, which would otherwise kill thousands is considered justifiable from public health standpoint. Same with small pox, polio, TB, etc. Jains are generally practical people and understand the concept of greater good.
Rather than stick to the orthodoxy of the faith without context would make Jainism (or any religion) obsolete. Let us agree that public health matters, Thus toxicity and safety testing has to be done. If it can be done without animal testing, great. If has to involve testing on live organisms from bacteria to beagles to ensure public safety, it has to be done. Since this is done without malice or intentional hinsa, it can be added to the karmas incurred by eating food or driving a car or heating water all of which is essential to life and done without intentional hinsa.
Taking Acharya's permission or using one's individual judgment is a cop out to this ethical dilemma.
If possible seek human volunteers for these experiments? In the development of homeopathy medicines there has been examples of developers/doctors to experiment the medicines on themselves to prove its effectiveness prior to using on others.
ReplyDeleteTesting has to be done in a controlled protocol with statistically valid sample size. Human volunteers are utilized for clinical trials, but only after it passes animal testing. Thus, homeopathy, ayurveda and chinese herbal medicines are not certified for use by the general medical profession. These may be effective, but not prescribed due to lack of testing. Many doctors have medicated themselves on new drugs, but that still does not make it safe for public use without animal and human testing in a large enough sample size.
DeleteThe only other choice is to not consume allopathic medicines, preserved food or pest controlled plant and vegetables. The most ardent Jains may be able to follow this; speaking for myself, I cannot. Michhami Dukadam.
Very gooⅾ info. Lᥙcky me I found your webssite by
ReplyDeletechance (stumbleupon). I have book marked it for later!
Lack of self-confidence leads to conducting clinical trials on animals.Ignorance of humans in 6th period (downward) of Jaina Time Cycle is misery-misery to self and other living beings.
ReplyDeleteLack of self-confidence leads to conducting clinical trials on animals.Ignorance of humans in 6th period (downward) of Jaina Time Cycle is misery-misery to self and other living beings.
ReplyDeleteI humbly submit that we did not decide when to be born. Given the ignorance of 6th period humans (us), is all the more reason to make sure of safety by testing and validation. We would not fly in a plane (or other life safety activity) without test pilots taking the risk. Until we reach a better period of higher intelligence, should the ignorants be testing for safety? Appreciate your views on this.
DeleteLife-span Karma due to a living being that has been acquired by that living being as a result of actions of the same living being decides the birth and death of that particular living being in the current state of being. Current state of any living being belongs to whether 5th time period or 6th time period of jaina time cycle is a debatable question since the level of ignorance of that particular living being increases in 6th period of Jaina Time cycle leading to dilemmas of clinical trials.
DeleteDear Colleagues with the jainlibrary.org,
ReplyDeleteThank You so much for all your efforts & endeavour towards dissemination of awareness vis-a-vis raising positive questions for self-judgement & research.
Thank to all, with lots of appreciations for your great works.
I feel that so far Jressedains have not expressed any clear and logical solution
ReplyDeleteand followed the systems existing in
medical education.Perhaps as more and
more Jains have been leaders in Medical
research,our thoughts can be implimented
gradually and compassionately with full
discussions with all Jain scholars and all
like minded Non-violence researchers in
total details available.I feel we can find
right solutions and avoid all the wrongful
mass tortures and sufferings imposed in
name of research and medical progress.
Jai Jinendra & best regards for all souls
At present I believe we have to concentrate more on food available in restaurants and in packets. There are certification like HALAL for Muslim's. I suggest to introduce such a system for vegetarian foods that may be helpful not only for Jain's but also for vegetarians in general.
ReplyDeleteKindly initiate processes for constituting such an international body for certified vegetarian food.
I feel that so far Jressedains have not expressed any clear and logical solution and followed the systems existing in medical education.Perhaps as more and more Jains have been leaders in Medical research,our thoughts can be implimented gradually and compassionately with full discussions with all Jain scholars and all like minded Non-violence researchers in
ReplyDeletetotal details available.I feel we can find right solutions and avoid all the wrongful mass tortures and sufferings imposed in
name of research and medical progress.
Jai Jinendra & best regards for all souls
I read the interesting blog post about perspectives on usage of animals for medical research. I thought that I can add to the discussion. I will appreciate your review and critical comments.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to treatment, we have two words that are mentioned in Agama. One is Jina-kalpi and the other is Sthavira-kalpi. The word "kalpa" means "upachar" or treatment when one is facing any ailment in their yoga (mana, vachana, kaya, indriya, buddhi and prana). The Jina-kalpi neither seeks treatment nor endorses (anumodana) treatment received if somebody kind enough provides the same even without being asked for. We have the story of the previous life of Sri Rishabhdeva about how he treated a Jina-kalpi sadhu and how Mata Marudevi was a rich lady who gave away precious ratna-kambala without hesitation for the treatment.
The Sthavira-kalpi would seek treatment and also endorse it when they face any ailment.
Given that we are in a hunda-avasarpini's fifth aaraa (pancham kala), all our capacities have considerably dwindled at all levels (physical, verbal, mental, intellectual and spiritual) compared to the times of Bhagwan Mahavira. Jina-kalpi has gone vichchheda meaning that we cannot find Jina-kalpi people in this time period. We can only be Sthavira-kalpi in panchama kala if we are to survive in this bodily form. Some do choose to forego treatment and accept death, but that is quite an individual decision.
The question then is about whether we have the level of awareness of our soul to the extent that we can subordinate this life to self-knowledge. Most probably not. Most of us are engrossed in the worldly matters and want to preserve our life when an ailment is faced. Even when one is aware of the soul, because keval-jnana has not yet been attained and manushya bhava is precious for carrying out sadhana (spiritual pursuits), one chooses to get treatment to stay alive in this bhava.
Once a decision is made (consciously with awareness or in a subconscious instinctive manner) to stay alive in this body by seeking tratment for an ailment, then that takes priority over other considerations of whether animal research is permissible or not. One can expound on the subject as much as one wants and can articulate various limitations on ethical ways of doing research. But the fundamental decision of one's own survival prompts one to make exceptions and that is where it gets blurry because then the whole question revolves around where to draw the line and who is right in the demarcation between ethical and unethical ways of supporting one's life.
From a practical perspective, our duty is to learn (jnana and darshana) and practice (chartitra and tapa) to increasingly move ourselves from Sthavira-kalpi to Jina-kalpi as much as possible. First is to use all preventive measures so the question of treatment remains distant. Still, one can be unlucky and may need treatment. Then one can learn to tolerate the ailment as much as practical (sakhshi-bhava dhyana is about such a practice of witnessing the suffering non-judgmentally) and get treatment as necessary with the intention that such treatment is to pursue sadhana rather than get back into the usual flow of life after recovery.
Obviously, it is not easy to draw any line of demarcation, but the path of jnana, darshana, charitra and tapa makes one aware more and more and one starts raising the bar for the self more and more. The bar must be at a level determined by each individual. When others start raising the bar then it comes across as an imposition. When it is from within then it is respected and adhered to earnestly.
Michchhami dukkadam if there is any mis-interpretation of our scriptures.
Regards ..
Very true
DeleteVery well written with deep understanding. Makes complete sense.
DeleteThere are 2 extreme way to live
ReplyDeleteFirst extreme is we cant kill any one eventhough we cant survive
Second is we will live at any cost.
We need to find our way inbetween it and its depend on persons wisdom
Some is talking about human volunteers for testing but what happen when they died or feel pain ?
I think we need to test each trial on base how important it for human life and how much it will cost to others life.
It is something like we are performing our day to day work with some hinsa.
Animal trial for product which are not life threatening must be prohibited
Such type of lab must be transparent and data must be accessible by any one , what they are testing and how much animal must be sacrifices.
First as jain we must stop hinsa in performing our ritual and then and then only talked on such object.
Using so much flowers in mandir is also one type of hinsa
When we build huge building also involve hinsa and maintaing them and its large garden also involve hinsa.
Then we argue that this all are ekendriya jiv and which we use in trial are higher order animal
But again question must be what is necessary to live or what is not.
When war happen we need to kill human in defence to survive.
We are making things much complicated
Simple thing is to live with minimal hinsa
Some word may be harsh but i write what i feel.
I never understand peoples are coming to derasar in vehicle and park them near to it and then come bare foot and enter in Garbhgruh without washing it then question is what is logic on coming barefoot?
Muchami Dukadam to every one
Animal testing is a messy and horrible process. Yes it gives some applicable information, and sometimes useless or misleading information. Much of animal testing is wasteful and redundant. Here are solutions and action items:
ReplyDelete1) Lead a healthy whole food vegan lifestyle and reduce the major diseases that require the most medications. This also includes exercise.
2) support organizations that develop alternatives. PCRM is then main organization. https://www.pcrm.org/ethical-science/animal-testing-and-alternatives
Such organizations need for financial and membership support of Jains. Please join!
Without these practical points we cannot bring true value to this discussion. Let us do what is right.
JJ
Just to tell you.
ReplyDeleteThese are not Jainism prospective.
These are author’s prospective.
No animal should be killed to do any medical research. Yes, if the medical science can make the man immortal by killing animals to find a solution to immortality then they can. Else certainly not.
ReplyDeleteThanks
There's certainly a lot to find out about this topic.
ReplyDeleteI like all the points you have made.
I'm an Indian-born Shwetamber Jain. I work for a NON-PROFIT research organization in the USA. I won't give more info on the organization as it doesn't matter in this case. Our research focuses on neuroscience, and we create and use genetically modified mice for our research. Mice are a useful model for genetic manipulation and research, as their tissues and organs are similar to that of a human and they carry virtually all the same genes that operate in humans. The data generated from our research is open-source and is being used by scientists and institutes worldwide. It has helped in achieving ground-breaking discoveries. We are funded by various philanthropists as well as the U.S. government.
ReplyDeleteTo all the people saying that _ALL_ animal testing is wasteful/redundant, well, it is not... and we as an organization prove that. Not only have we use mice for our research (who are very well looked after. we even name each one of them.), we have used live human tissues for our research which were willingly given to us by the patients who underwent different brain surgeries like epilepsy. Our research findings on mice brain matches very well with that of human brain.
I understand a lot of people's views on animal testing, and I agree with them to a certain extent. People have misused, ill-treated and purposefully-killed a lot of animals for testing. But not all of them is bad. Some organizations (like ours) do the best to not harm the animals and treat them with utmost care.
I'm not trying to sway anyone's mindset over here. I'm just trying to convey my experience as an employee of an organization that does their research using animals.
I'm glad you shared this perspective. There is no right or wrong answer that covers the whole gamut of situations.
DeleteThe use of animals in medical testing should be kept to a minimum, as stated in the article. I believe that there are technological methods that can be used instead to test out certain products rather than always relying on animals for medical testing. However, it is important to also note that these technologies may have limits and it may be necessary to test out certain products with the use of animals. With strict guidelines and limits on who and how medical testing is done with the use of animals, I think it is possible to reduce the violence endured by the animals during medical testing. Only at the last resort should we use animals for medical testing for the survival of the human race, as mentioned by the article. Otherwise, we should restrict the use of animals or any violence done during medical testing so that the we do the least amount of harm to those other than us.
DeleteHistory speaks billions of dollars spent on research and findings on most animal experimentations using tax payers money have either failed, showed no results, made to show a success to earn brownie points or later has turned out to be false, the rest has never been a major benefit to consumers except filling pockets of govt officials and corporate companies as everything is about money.
ReplyDeleteThe minds of some of the new generations of so called Jains is filled with so much of greed that they will go to any extent and never hesitate... be it letting their kids eat meat, serving meat in their marriages, doing gelatin, leather business, opening meat restaurants or sending their kids to be medical doctor regardless of the cruel animal experimentation. The whole idea is about minting money and not for services to man kind, not to forget the non Jains are the ones who showed initiative of using artificial animal bodies in universities. Salute to them as they are more Jains then some of us.
Few Jain scientists researchers and doctors try to cover up making it appear that animal experiments are required, limited to rats and done in a humane way. This is absolutely false and rubbish. Universities are allowed never to disclose their animal torture they perform. To know how horrific it is people should find that PBS documentary about how many apes including babies go through experimentation, all getting injected everyday with aids virus and more. The number of apes after experimentation was so huge and their condition so gruesome they were given an island to be released and die in pain. Such videos are systematically made to disappear from media. Here again these are the non Jains who show protests at universities against these cruel experimentations, salute to them for being more Jains! Never seen a Jain participate in such.
It is a shame that new generation of Jains had a need to even discuss this topic. This is the reason why Jain population is decreasing since Mahavir era. Among the current leftovers a very few need to question themselves about their Jain identity.
Ahimsa Parmo Dharam - nothing else.
Most of the contents presented through-out these blogs are well written. However this one piece seems to have missed the core of knowledge.
ReplyDelete"So, if the entire human race is at stake then one must do whatever minimum is required, with Jain Acharaya’s permission, for the survival of the human race."
What is intelligent in this kind of action? Everyone does it - from an ant to the humans, the highest form of intelligence. "Since we are the best, we should survive!!" Who does not think this way? Everyone. Every single creature in this universe is designed to think of its own protection when it comes to a threat about survival.
When we already know that there is simply one soul, whether it is about the ants, termites or humans, then how can we decide that if it comes to termites versus the humans, we should survive because we are the great five-sensed most intelligent creatures on this planet?
I don't think Lord Mahavir would have suggested this in any of his teachings.
Tens of millions of animals are used for testing every year, and it is just an approximation, since animal testing labs are not required by law to disclose the number of animals used for testing.Thanks for sharing.If you want any doubt visit this site.
ReplyDeleteAnimal experiments
Animal experiments in chennai
Animal experiments in Singapore
Animal Testing Center
Animal Testing Laboratories