Go vegan - lose a job?

[Guest guest]

From page A5 of this morning's Chron. Read it and weep!

 

 

JUDGE RULES AGAINST VEGAN SUIT

Practitioners May Not Claim Religious Discrimination

 

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, September 14, 2002

 

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Vegans don't eat, wear or use animal products, but that's a moral

philosophical practice, not a religion, a state appellate court ruled

Friday.

 

Thus, the court said, vegans can't sue for religious discrimination.

 

In the nation's first known ruling on the issue, the three-judge Court of

Appeal panel in Los Angeles threw out a lawsuit by a vegan who claimed he

was denied a job because he refused a mumps vaccine that was grown in

chicken embryos.

 

Jerold Friedman, a computer programmer who lives in Hawthorne southwest of

Los Angeles, said accepting the vaccine would have violated his religious

belief that all animal species are equal and deserve equal treatment.

 

" I no longer believe, " he said Friday, " that because somebody is born as a

frog or a human, one of them gets preferential treatment. " Religion,

Friedman said, " means that selfless dedication to something that we believe

is right. "

 

But in a 41-page ruling that surveyed decades of past cases on religious

issues, the court said a religious creed must address " fundamental and

ultimate questions having to do with deep and imponderable matters. "

 

A belief in a supreme being is not required; the Supreme Court has granted

conscientious objector status to atheists who said their moral and spiritual

opposition to killing was equivalent to a religion. Courts have also given

religious recognition to a wide range of beliefs, like that of a minister

who said his Christian faith included white supremacy.

 

But the appellate court said veganism does not meet the test, even though

Friedman says it shapes his entire way of life and view of the world.

 

" There is no apparent spiritual or otherworldly component to (Friedman's)

beliefs, " wrote Presiding Justice Paul Turner. He said those beliefs do not

address " the meaning of human existence; the purpose of life; theories of

humankind's nature or its place in the universe; matters of human life and

death, or the exercise of faith. "

 

The absence of religious ceremonies, teachers or leaders, holidays and other

conventions was further evidence that Friedman's veganism is " a moral and

secular, rather than religious, philosophy, " Turner said.

 

The court's view " reflects the old traditional model of religion, " said

Friedman, who plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

 

As a dietary practice, veganism goes a step beyond vegetarian abstention

from meat, chicken or fish; vegans won't consume milk, eggs or honey,

either. They also won't wear leather or silk derived from animals or use

products that have been tested on animals.

 

Friedman, 33, said he became a vegan about 12 years ago after dropping out

of veterinary school. Working through a temporary agency, he had landed a

computer job at a Kaiser pharmacy warehouse in Downey in 1998 when he was

offered a permanent job with Kaiser. The position, he said, did not involve

contact with patients or health workers, but the company required a mumps

vaccine. When he refused to be vaccinated, Kaiser withdrew the offer, he

said.

 

Friday's ruling upheld a Superior Court judge's dismissal of Friedman's

discrimination suit. A lawyer for Kaiser declined comment.

 

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko.