Ask HN: Why can’t we eat dead human flesh like we eat dead animal flesh?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19001286

by jelliclesfarm • 7 years ago

9 27 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

In general, eating apex predators is pretty bad, because they have (and we humans have) a high concentration of every bad thing that the less-than-apex predators and herbivores pick up from the environment.

Eating human flesh can lead to transmitting parasites, as can consuming animals fed on human feces (pigs or fish). The big example of this is Kuru (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease))

So: avoid human flesh to avoid concentrations of mercury, dioxin, parasites and prion-related diseases.

jelliclesfarm13• 7 years ago

What if we all become vegetarians and the only meat we eat is recycled human flesh after we die.

This is just an extreme thought experiment.

What if there was a way to sanitize meats of pathogens and parasites?

Imagine we are in a distant planet that can’t sustain CAFOs and there are just other humans around...and we don’t have resources or energy to raise meat for protein, nutrients and calories..and can only grow a certain kinds of plants as food.

Re Apex predators: wouldn’t shark or whales be apex predators of the ocean? And we consume them..some do anyways.

_Schizotypy2• 7 years ago

That is an interesting thought experiment.

As a side note, plants do produce proteins.

endisukaj• 7 years ago

Vegans and vegetarians live without consuming meat. There's plenty of plant substitutes for the nutrients we get from meat (nuts, mushrooms, soy and so on).

fredophile• 7 years ago

You can eat safe quantities of apex predators. However, if you look at the amount of tuna you can safely eat vs the amount of sardines you'll see you can eat a lot more sardines. The tuna will have a much higher concentration of heavy metals.

We also aren't talking about something that will kill you today. Lots of people do things that are unhealthy and will lead to future harm.

simonblack• 7 years ago

Where do you think Soylent Green comes from?

Incidentally, 2022 is not very far away at all.

jelliclesfarm13• 7 years ago

Haha! “Soylent..it’s made out of people!!!”

I was so tickled when the beverage people picked the name Soylent for their product.

philonoist• 7 years ago

Also for the same reason dead's organs are not reused unless consented by the person or his closest kith/kin when consent of the person is unknown. Mostly there is no consent by them because they are humiliated by having the thought of being valued as a food first by a stranger of their society.

2. If you have enough poor in your country and human flesh is valued enough, people will get killed for black market.

3. Human flesh can be deadly like Kuru. I couldn't watch videos of how they had tremours! The clan was on the verge of collapsing so they stopped.

jelliclesfarm13• 7 years ago

Ok. But I assumed consent obviously. Did not think about the black market angle.

zzo38computer• 7 years ago

I think that consent is irrelevant and if you can use it for food it is OK (they are dead and cannot consent, and also the other plants/animals you also don't usually consent either). The dead body (human or otherwise) is for eating (whether by human or others animals) and for recycling. That is how to do the nature, and it is good.

However, Kuru is good point; since it is not good to eat, so, don't eat, please (another comment mentions other kind of disease too). There is valid reason to be careful due to such thing. It is also contrary to the English cultural that I know, I think.

yesenadam2• 7 years ago

Because "Eating People is Wrong".

Vegan here, my gf had a shirt saying that, with the Goya picture Saturn Devouring his Son[0] on it. I liked it so much she got me one too. Important message, I think.

But seriously...we can, see the book/movie Alive[1]. If it's that or starve to death, we all would. It apparently was (is?) common in many traditional cultures, e.g. (as I learnt recently) in areas of the Philippines until the 19th C.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/

jelliclesfarm13• 7 years ago

But if they are not slaughtered/killed for food and are ‘harvested’ just before their eminent demise, what is wrong with using perfectly good food.

Obviously there are ethical issues/black market abuse etc. but it seems such a waste to inject a body full of formaldehyde or whatever or burn it or bury it after the homo sapien organism is considered an empty shell after its organs cease to function.

Thanks for all that first quote! I love Flanders and Swann! I used to think it hilarious and fun to start singing ‘The Reluctant Cannibal’ at dinners until I had to stop doing it because 1. No one got it anymore 2. They didn’t think it was funny.

I am a vegetarian, but I might be less squeamish about ingesting meat if it was harvested ethically. Perhaps mere minutes after death or right after death. We harvest organs after one dies. Why not the rest of the body?

yesenadam2• 7 years ago

Such schemes are called 'modest proposals' after Swift's original https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal

Well yes, I've wondered why people who think factory farming at its worst is acceptable, with their "The animal wouldn't exist without the farm" and "painless slaughter is OK" arguments etc, never consider farmed human meat. One could use a lot of the factory farming arguments in its favour. (Both are abhorrent to me.)

jelliclesfarm13• 7 years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism : lots of info. Generic Wiki entry.

jelliclesfarm13• 7 years ago

Oh my! The Goya painting has a name ..Filial Cannibalism with benefits and cons as well.. from: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_cannibalism

[...]Benefits

Satisfies current energy or nutrition requirements.

In a bad reproductive environment, cannibalism is a way to make a recouping reproductive investment.

Puts evolutionary pressure on offspring in order to make the offspring develop quicker.

May increase the reproductive rate of a parent by making that parent more attractive to potential mates.

Gets rid of offspring that take too long to mature.

Removes weaker offspring in an overproduced brood, which makes the other offspring more likely to be successful

Costs

Loss of fitness.

Transmission of diseases and parasites.

Decrease of success in current reproduction. [..]

siruncledrew• 7 years ago

What I wonder is how castaways lost at sea that ate their dead crew managed to survive without getting some kind of crazy infection/disease. Especially if it was uncooked flesh.

jelliclesfarm13• 7 years ago

Perhaps prion diseases were rare.

lexda15• 7 years ago

I'm vegan and still alive.

Ask HN: Why can’t we eat dead human flesh like we eat dead animal flesh?

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