Eating People - Right or Wrong?
Lawyers, theologians, philosphers, Homer, Lance and others - I would like to know your opinions…
Is cannibalism morally and ethically wrong - If everything is permissible between consenting adults, why not?
“According to the psychiatrist, Heinrich Wilmer, the German cannibal Armin Meiwes, who killed Bernd Brandes and then ate at least 44 pounds of his flesh, is suffering from “emotional problems.” We might say the same, I suppose, of Brandes, who answered Meiwes’s Internet advertisement for “a young, well-built man who wants to be eaten”—though his problems are now past curing. Brandes also had a slightly offbeat sense of humor. On discovering that both he and Meiwes were smokers, he reportedly said, “Good, smoked meat lasts longer.”
The case raises interesting questions of principle, even for those who take the thoroughly conventional view that eating people is wrong. According to the evidence, Meiwes and Brandes were consenting adults: by what right, therefore, has the state interfered in their slightly odd relationship?”
Source: http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon_01_05_04td.html
July 10th, 2006 at 10:43 am
I watched Morgan Spurlock’s documentary “Super Size Me”… and frankly, there’s more to worry about with Maccas than homeless people in the burgers.
I still go sometimes mind you! You need to be a strong willed parent to avoid them.
July 10th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
isn’t anyone taking the biblical route on this?
The Bible mentions eating your own limbs, but specifically condemns eating those already dead.
So our fellow who wanted to be eaten and chappy who wanted to eat long pig should both have hacked off an arm and then had a nice communal BBQ but being careful to only munch on their own charred flesh. See, then they both get a bit of what they thought they wanted and there is still time to change your mind without facing too many legal quagmires. For example, after you have just drained a dead body of all its blood and cut it into nice sections it is a bit late to decide that perhaps all you really wanted was for you Father to say “I love you” especially if you are the dead body in question.
Furthermore, once you reach that point if you don’t go ahead and eat the chap then I believe you have just committed murder. You need the actual eating part before you have fulfilled your part of the deal. No eating? No legal loophole.
I do believe however that they were within Old Testament law early on in the piece when they lopped off the first slice of the meal (hey cool, lets meet the meat as Zaphod once said) and shared it together. I understand this first cut was of the sweet meat variety (although I read that on the internet, so I have room for doubt).
But then, that’s only rules for us God botheres, those who don’t fancy inviting in the personal Lord and Saviour I guess get to make up their own minds as to how this sits in their ethical framework.
July 11th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
I can’t recall anything in the bible about eating one’s limbs. Where the heck is that?
There’s that horrible story in II Kings 6 about the 2 women who made a pact to eat their children… but that, like many of the OT stories, is more to do with how bad things get when people turn away from God than a sanction to do likewise!
I like your blog name… I enjoy the thought of someone running around the library frenetically telling everyone to Shhhhhh!!!!
July 11th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Janet,
Isaiah
9:20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
but then, as you mention it is more of an example of how life will go, rather than instructions on how life should be.
As for the blog,
I’m afraid I’m not a shusher but I have been told to be quiet by patrons of the library.
July 11th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Hi ADHD and thanks for the clarification!
In the Amplified version it reads:
20They snatch in discord on the right hand, but are still hungry [their cruelty not diminished]; and they devour and destroy on the left hand, but are not satisfied. Each devours and destroys his own flesh [and blood] or his neighbor’s.
In the NIV:
20 On the right they will devour,
but still be hungry;
on the left they will eat,
but not be satisfied.
Each will feed on the flesh of his own offspring
(Thanks to biblegateway.com!)
I think it’s only the slightly confusing translation of the KJV that makes it sound like self cannibalism.
You know, it’s not hard to imagine you’re a shushee, not a shusher!