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Books About Being Vegan FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APPEAL FILED ON "ETHICAL VEGANISM" RELIGION LAWSUIT AGAINST KAISER PERMANENTEMay 10, 2001, LOS ANGELES - A Notice of Appeal was filed Monday, May 7, to establish that Ethical Veganism and other nontraditional religions are protected by the California anti-discrimination statutes. The appeal was filed on a March 29 judgment in favor of Kaiser Permanente by Judge Cesar Sarmiento, which had incorporated Judge Ronald Sohigian's prior demurrer rulings, which threw out the religious aspect of a civil rights lawsuit against them by an Ethical Vegan, Jerry Friedman. Kaiser's lawyers claimed that the laws protecting an employee's religion were only intended to protect Jews, Christians and Muslims, while Mr. Friedman claimed the law was intended to protect anyone with sincere and profound personal beliefs that are held with the strength and conviction of a traditional religion. Judge Sohigian later recused himself for having a beneficial interest in a pharmaceutical company. However, the later judge refused to set aside Sohigian's ruling. "The effect of the ruling would allow courts, and not the believers, to determine what is a 'religion'." said Friedman's attorney, Scott D. Myer. "Allowing only traditional religions to be protected could lead to the persecution of nontraditional religions, just as Protestants were persecuted in the Dark Ages." Mr. Friedman, a former contract worker at Kaiser, alleges in the lawsuit that his contract was canceled and a full-time work offer was rescinded in April 1998 when he refused – for his ethical religious reasons – to take a mumps vaccination. He said he refused the mumps vaccine because it is grown in chicken embryos, violating his beliefs, which prohibit the eating, wearing or using of any animal products. "Egg-laying hens suffer greatly in chicken factory farms, and the use of unborn chickens to culture the mumps vaccine causes further unnecessary deaths," he explained. Mr. Friedman said the vaccine was unnecessary because he was employed at a Kaiser warehouse and had no contact with patients. He offered to use alternative measures, such as periodic testing or working "offsite," to satisfy Kaiser's concerns, but the employer refused. Further, it's a childhood disease, yet pupils at age seven are exempt from the vaccine and children of any age can be excused from the vaccine for "personal beliefs or medical condition," a much easier hurdle than religious beliefs. For More Information Contact: Locate
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