Cannibalism and the Hunger Crisis

[The_Master]

 

[karisma]

I dunno. It's just when I really think about it, it almost seems unethical not to promote cannibalism, while still protecting the rights of people and laws of the land to avoid murdering for food. I mean, if a family's dairy cow/goat died, it would almost a crime to dispose of the carcass when it could be used to feed a starving family. Why not humans?

Cannibalism is an ugly word in itself. Why not refer to it instead as something like "same-species nutrition?" Or something.

These are the things I ponder when I get really bored at work.

 

[Exhausted]

There's too much baggage attached to the idea.

But in some hypothetical situations, it could work.

 

[Isambard]

I dunno. It's just when I really think about it, it almost seems unethical not to promote cannibalism, while still protecting the rights of people and laws of the land to avoid murdering for food. I mean, if a family's dairy cow/goat died, it would almost a crime to dispose of the carcass when it could be used to feed a starving family. Why not humans?

Cannibalism is an ugly word in itself. Why not refer to it instead as something like "same-species nutrition?" Or something.

These are the things I ponder when I get really bored at work.

As already mentioned, there's pragmatic reasons why cannibalizing the sickly and dead would not work.

That said, the best course of action would to turn the dead into compost to fertilize fields for future yields. Ditto for culling the sickly.

 

[EnemyPartyII]

Kuru says no.

 

[lawtonfogle]

I think that any organisation that promoted cannibalism, even with the best intentions, would not be taken seriously. People have strong moral objections, for better or worse, to eating human flesh.

There are also health risks associated with cannibalism.

Moral objections sway easily to basic needs.

 

[lawtonfogle]

As already mentioned, there's pragmatic reasons why cannibalizing the sickly and dead would not work.

That said, the best course of action would to turn the dead into compost to fertilize fields for future yields. Ditto for culling the sickly.

Die of hunger, or maybe die after having a meal... If you are really that hungry, then I don't think health is still a concern.

 

[Bombila]

Nevertheless, most people, in almost all presently existing cultures, won't turn to cannibalism, but will starve to death.

There's quite a bit of evidence that every culture that made cannibalism a 'normal' part of life, even if just as part of funerary ritual, paid a steep price, usually that of extinction, sometimes reduction by disease to the point of not being a viable society. Some paleontologists have found evidence that Neanderthals in a number of locations regularly practiced cannibalism, and may have contracted severe diseases as a result that hastened their demise.