On Eating Human Meat

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Brandon_Cal

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The interwebz are abuzz with talk about the $300,000 laboratory grown hamburger, and it has gotten me thinking about the morality of doing the same but with human meat.

Let’s first qualify the conditions under which one would find such human meat for consumption:
  • human stem cells are grown in a Petri dish,
  • these stem cells are obtained from an adult human, or embryonically from the placenta or umbilical cord after live birth,
  • the acquisition of said stem cells occurs after proper consent from the relevant parties is obtained,
  • and no central nervous tissue is grown.
Is it ethically permissible to consume such human meat?
 
Brandon_Cal said:
The interwebz are abuzz with talk about the $300,000 laboratory grown hamburger, and it has gotten me thinking about the morality of doing the same but with human meat.

Let’s first qualify the conditions under which one would find such human meat for consumption:
  • human stem cells are grown in a Petri dish,
  • these stem cells are obtained from an adult human, or embryonically from the placenta or umbilical cord after live birth,
  • the acquisition of said stem cells occurs after proper consent from the relevant parties is obtained,
  • and no central nervous tissue is grown.
Is it ethically permissible to consume such human meat?
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Frankly, I wouldn’t even eat the beef patty let alone a human one. (But that’s just me)
 
Perhaps not a mortal sin, but it degrades both you and humanity to do so. Thus I would argue it at least qualifies as a venial sin and definitely a sign of disordered psychology (defect).
 
Human flesh not being for human consumption (unless in extreme circumstances to save one’s life), it would be immoral to eat a human flesh burger. Consider, if a person was forced to have their leg amputated for a legitimate medical reason, but the flesh on the leg was in no way diseased, and would not make you sick if you ate it, would you eat it? (assuming other food was present). Growing the food in a Petri dish doesn’t change the morality of the act.
 
PietroPaolo said:
Human flesh not being for human consumption (unless in extreme circumstances to save one’s life), it would be immoral to eat a human flesh burger. Consider, if a person was forced to have their leg amputated for a legitimate medical reason, but the flesh on the leg was in no way diseased, and would not make you sick if you ate it, would you eat it? (assuming other food was present). Growing the food in a Petri dish doesn’t change the morality of the act.
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In some families, it is a tradition to eat the placenta after a baby is born.
 
PietroPaolo said:
We eat the glorified (post-resurrection) flesh of Our Lord. That is not cannibalism. This is.
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It is only acceptable to partake of the Eucharist because Our Lord commanded us to do so. I agree, he didn’t give us permission to eat other humans. Each one of us is a Temple of God. We should never desecrate a temple.
 
It’s an interesting question and you can be 100% positive that if/when grown meat becomes achievable on a commercial level, the Magisterium is going to have to give an answer, because there will become a special market on it with human meat (my guess is the Japanese will be the first to try it).

Of course the taste of the lab grown meat and the actual meat of a live human being would vary significantly. With an American diet, human meat is very, very rich and unusual compared to a herd or wild animal that lives off of foliage or corn. If there is a market for lab grown human meat, there could subsequently become a niche underground market for the real thing as well (don’t doubt it. Stranger pursuits already exist in the world)
 
People are so gross… 😦

Human meat? Seriously. I don’t doubt it will happen.
 
I wonder what part would taste best? Nothing too muscular, but perhaps a nice, well-marbled thigh would do the trick with some BBQ sauce turned slowly over a fire pit.
 
LaSainte said:
I wonder what part would taste best? Nothing too muscular, but perhaps a nice, well-marbled thigh would do the trick with some BBQ sauce turned slowly over a fire pit.
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I see it being the butt, thighs, and boobs.
 
PietroPaolo said:
And in some cultures all kinds of cannibalism is customary. It’s still immoral.
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So does consuming the placenta = cannibalism? :confused:

Mine is still in my deep freeze…still trying to figure out what to do with it…😛
 
Brandon_Cal said:
Is it ethically permissible to consume such human meat?
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Probably not.

Regardless, it would be an incredibly bad thing to do. The biggest problem is that human meat can carry human disease, and could be a major health hazard.
 
I wouldn’t personally choose to use that as an argument. People have done the same thing to argue why sex outside of marriage is immoral, and it is not a good argument to rely on. The risk of disease can easily be overcome with a little bit of care and knowledge, even for diseases that, unlike with animal consumption, wouldn’t face a barrier of transmitting from species to species.
 
I doubt eating human meat is inherently immoral. I don’t see a logical reason why it would be.
 
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