You would be surprised how many times I have gotten this question since having my kids. It continues to amaze me how little people understand about veganism, even when it has ballooned in popularity like ten fold since I became vegan. Just the other day, when my in-laws came for our son's first birthday, my father-in-law proclaimed, "So, he is not fully vegan yet," when hearing that I still breast feed. Let me just please put this argument to rest once and for all.
To answer the question, you first have to know the definition of vegan, because this seems to be where everyone is getting confused. Check any dictionary, and you'll find the meaning of the word vegan is "a person who does not eat or use animal products". Seems straightforward, but it does lack certain explanations on why they do not eat or use animal products, and therefore whether humans are also considered in that definition. Everyone just assumes that because vegans don't drink animal milks, that must mean we don't breast feed either, or like my father-in-law thinks, that our babies don't become vegan until they are weaned! Misconceptions abound. According to The Vegan Society, veganism is defined more thoroughly:
"Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose."
So, in other words, to be vegan means to not cause exploitation of the creatures we share our world with (and I expect we would extend that to other planets as well, if this were to become a reality).
Vegans do not eat meat because it exploits, causes harm and premature death (murder) to the animals.
Vegans don't eat eggs, because it exploits and causes harm and premature death to the chicken.
Vegans do not drink milk from cows because it exploits and causes harm and premature death to the cow.
Vegans do not buy fur or leather because these products exploit, harm and kill the animals from whom the products originated.
Vegan babies, on the other hand, DO drink human breast milk because it does not exploit, harm or kill the mother to breast feed. Nursing a baby is completely harmless. Not only that, but it's human to nurse our babies. We are mammals, after all. The word 'mammal' was originated from the fact that all mammals nourish their young from mammary glands. Being vegan doesn't mean we are anti-human. In fact, we feel more human being vegan than not vegan, because veganism means caring, compassion and respect for all living creatures, as well as for the planet in which we reside and owe our lives to. So yes, a human mother nursing or feeding her baby human breast milk, providing it wasn't purchased or stolen from enslaved lactating women who had their babies kidnapped from them after birth, is perfectly vegan.
Thank you.
