Another problem is about the killing of animals. It is the first tenet of Buddhism not to kill any living being. Being a lofty model for
medicine and medical ethics as well, the king of medicines in TCM, Sun Simiao, also ; advised not to take animals' lives. He even mentioned that, "to benefit oneself at the expense of others is the common sense of an animal, not a human being.
I do not advocate the use of animals as medicines, the insects and leeches bought from the markets being an exception." While Sun was not a Buddhist, he also advised people not to kill animals to create medicines to save lives. Theoretically speaking, in a society of unified politic-religion like Tibet,Tibetan doctors, all of them are Buddhist devotees, should be even more
determined to stick to this discipline. However, facts go against this theory, as we can see from Rgyud bzhi that animal products represent a large proportion of medicines, including ox heart, dog tongue, goat liver, rabbit heart, eagle eye etc. Rough estimation shows that animal medicines represent as many as a third of Tibetan medicines. Thus, it seems that
Tibetan medicine goes against Buddhism.
Careful study would lead to the conclusion that the natural environment of Tibet plateau determines that Tibetan medicine will use more animal products. It obeys the objective natural law, in other words. The lofty humanistic ideal of saving lives and helping the sick far exceeds the Buddhist taboo on killing animal. Religious dogma is not a chasm to be avoided. After all, medicine is to save lives. What medicine needs is realism, not idealism. This is the real implication of medical ethics.
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source:http://www.tcmadvisory.com/index.asp
