How is it any people cannot put themselves in that place with imagining? Even animals could identify with what would not be desirable. Humans should have the sensibility to know they would not want what the animals being used are put through, we can likewise choose to not have anything to do with that, and we can already find out ourselves that there are ways to be very healthy this way without products from animals. And the same amount of use of resources for it and contribution to damage to environments with loss of species does not need to be continued then. https://healthyaging.emory.edu/could-eating-30-plants-a-week-be-the-answer-to-better-health/
So honest question about veganism here, since it relates to animal suffering - are vegans limited to what medicine they can use, since nearly all of it required animal testing? Especially since usually these animals suffered WAY more than livestock does, due to how medicine is tested.
If yes, and the philosophy does allow medicine, then does that mean raising your own chickens in ideal conditions and only eating them at an old age / near death is fine in that case, for example?
Veganism is not about animal suffering, but needless animal exploitation.
Is the medicine needed for you? Then it isn’t needless animal exploitation.
Do you have other options besides exploiting animals to death for food? Then it is needless animal exploitation.
EDIT: I should clarify that there’s not one vegan philosophy. There’s many different philosophies that could lead to veganism. Animal personhood being the most extreme end of it, but vegans also include people who believe in harm minimization, people who just hate factory farms and live in cities, Buddhists, radical interpretations of halal, and more. I answered these questions from a harm minimization perspective.
General principle is minimization of harm. The classic example is “You’re on an island alone, slowly starving to death. There’s a pig. Would you kill and eat the pig?”
For quite a few vegans, the answer is yes. Luckily, that’s not the situation we find ourselves in, we can live healthy and happy lives without harming many animals in the vast majority of situations.
To directly answer the question: it depends. Is there an alternative that hasn’t been tested on animals? Is this medicine life-saving, or just very slight quality of life bump, like getting over a hangover slightly faster? Those questions would guide you to an answer.
To answer your chicken question, I don’t think there’s any moral issue with eating the body of a being that’s died of old age. I don’t think many vegans would do that anyway though, because after a long time without meat, it tastes “wrong” to eat meat (not sure exactly how to describe it). Same reason not many long-term vegans are that interested in lab-grown meat.
Kinda how it wouldn’t be immoral to eat your dog who died of old age, though it would be weird and icky
You already got some good answers for the rest, but this part is also questionable. Lab animals tend to be kept in better conditions than most farmed animals. And while toxicity tests are terrible (esp the ones for cosmetics) they don’t tend to last as long as intensive farming. Chickens in factory farms can barely move, some collapse under the weight of their own muscles, 70 to 80% of them have broken bones. It is trully hell and that’s just one example.
Also when you look at the numbers, proportionally eating animals is a way bigger issue. Most meat eaters would be “responsible” for the killing of around ~100 animals a year just for food. For medicine, proportionally it would be way, way less, since the test happened only once.
To be honest for me veganism is not a set of rules, it’s a way of looking at things. Taking into consideration that animals are sentient beings and being honest to myself about the implications. Also on how my actions impact the world. I can’t justify not taking most medicines if I need them. However I also can’t justify not making the effort to look for cruelty-free cosmetics.