Cannibalism - Is it morally wrong if the victim is willing?

[Ck]

That case of the German cannibal was in the news again last week.

Meiwes, 44, has argued that the March 2001 killing at his home in the central town of Rotenburg should be considered "death on demand." He said Brandes answered his Internet ad seeking someone for "slaughter and consumption" and told him that he wanted to "be eaten alive."

According to Meiwes, the 43-year-old Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

Source

So is what Meiwes did morally wrong?

[captainfly]

So sweetheart would you like to be eaten alive:wink:

[Ck]

I hope that's not an offer. I've done self defence. I'll gouge your eyes out and snap your dick off before you can bare your gnashers.

[Mr Morningstarr*]

I think as suicide is illegal, which I agree with, this could never be legal.
Regarding morality, I'd say it doesn't fit in with todays standards of morality and if the law surrounding suicide doesn't change it will remain that way.

[Ck]

Apparently in Germany the sentence for assisted suicide (or some other similar phrase) is a maximum of five years.

Do you think what Meiwes did could be classed as that?

[Mr Morningstarr*]

I would find that reasonable, unless the prosecution could prove the victim was coerced in which case he should be convicted of manslaughter at the very least.

The other thing to take into account is whether any laws exist regarding the cannibalism.

[Donachiel]

I think the moral issues here are regardless of the laws of society, but more the laws of nature.

What makes a man wont to kill and eat another man? And what kind of example to the rest of society would it make if we allowed for this to happen.

Someone who would prey and feed on their own kind, obviously has some kind of superiority complex - it's the old Hannibal Lector complex. He sees himslelf as better than everyone else. Where does it end...?

Not to mention the genetic and health issues related to partaking of your own kind.

For the record though, cannabalism is against the law in most civilised places. Criminal cannabalism is called anthropophagy, however, some cases of survival cannabalism has been accepted in the past, such as the rugby playyers whose plane crashed in the Andes and they were forced to eat the dead to survive.

D hock:

[Ck]

I was wondering what we tasted like so I did a bit of searching about.

"From all accounts, human meat is very sweet, in Vanuatu, they say that the flesh of a black man is sweet, whereas the flesh of a white man is really quite salty and stringy, they say it's not so nice."

"Old ones are tough. Young men and women taste better. And babies taste like fish. The flesh is very soft".

How strange that we all taste different. A bit like jelly babies!

[Mr Morningstarr*]

Where's Vanuatu?

Have they really eaten babies?

[Ck]

I don't know.

I read it on the net so it must be true.

Source