What is the Jain position on receiving immunizations?
The following answer is from Gabriel, who responded to a Jain Friends posting. Because in Jainism we value the concept of Ahimsa so highly, it is worthwhile to look at immunizations and the destruction of life involved more carefully. There is more at stake here than bacterial life. Would we eat chicken embryos if we somehow believed that they would protect us from contracting certain diseases? As Jains, we would not. Yet, many of us are unaware that when we get inoculated, we are putting this very same thing into our body. A surprising number of immunizations are created using chicken embryos and other animal flesh materials. How can this possibly be acceptable to us? Originally the vaccinations were grown on sores in animals’ bodies. Now this is no longer the case, but still animal tissues are an integral part of the production process. And as stated earlier, chicken embryos are not an uncommon ingredient. Here is something directly off the prescribing information of one of the commo
