There's discussion between Buddhists of different schools about whether it's important to have a vegetarian diet.
Some say "yes" -- because eating meat involves farming and killing or hunting animals -- and even if you don't kill them yourself, your paying for meat contributes to that industry and cycle.
Some (as you probably know) say "no" -- that it's alright to buy already-dead meat in a market provided the animal wasn't killed specifically for you. They'd also point out that vegetarians too contribute to killing animals -- that ploughing the soil kills worms, that harvesting grain may kill mice, and so on.
The proper reaction to that, I've seen it argued, is samvega and so on.
The proper reaction to that, I've seen it argued, is samvega and so on.
Anyway, I wonder whether killing a parasite like a tape-worm (by taking medicine) for the health of "my" body is morally similar to killing an earth-worm by digging in "my" garden to grow food.
I think that Jains are a little more extreme about "harmlessness" than Buddhists -- and that they view fasting to death as ethical -- which as you might point out is not the Middle Way of Buddhism.
I'm not sure what the rule would be for Buddhist monks. Perhaps they're expected to be obedient in taking medical prescriptions when they're ill. I don't know in fact whether a monk or doctor who prescribes a medicine would avoid prescribing a medicine which would kill a parasite (or other infection). I think that a medicine which "purges" is one of the traditional types of medicine according to the Vinaya.
