OK, for those of you who don't want to think about cannibalism, don't read this post. Seriously. Stop now. For those of you who like thinking about random things, culture, ethics, society, etc. read on, you may find this interesting...
What I'm wondering is why cannibalism is so wrong. If someone dies suddenly of natural causes (e.g. broken neck) should it be wrong to eat them? Presume the dead person is definitely healthy to eat. Note: these are only my own (crazy) views / ideas. I could be wrong.
On a desert island you may have no other food sources. I bet most people would resort to cannibalism if they had to. If you think you would resort to it, do you think it's actually wrong to resort to it? If it's not wrong to resort to it, what would have to change to make it wrong?
From a non-social viewpoint (e.g. if you were a recluse cannibal and no one knew), most people would probably not eat another person due to the fact that the dead body represents the past life of the person who's body it was. If you believe people just die when they die (no afterlife) then there should logically be no connection between a dead body and a persons life.
If you believe in an afterlife it could get complicated. Christians believe a dead body does not contain a soul or a spirit, so they should have no problem eating them on that basis (although they would have other reasons, see below). As far as I'm aware, Muslims and Jews believe the same (please correct me if I'm wrong, I'd like to know).
People who believe in reincarnation, ghosts, contacting dead people, etc. would probably attach more value to the dead body. I don't really know though. Anyone care to comment?
Christians, Jews and I expect Muslims believe that God (or Allah) provided people with food such as plants and animals to eat, not other humans. In that case, it would be a sin (wrong) to go against what God wanted for us. Though, is it a sin to eat a dead body if you're starving on a desert island? Would you be tempted to sin, or would it be the right thing to do? Would God want you to die when you could easily live?
What about the millions of starving people in places like Africa? It isn't very ethical to waste chicken, port or beef meat when there are people who haven't had a meal in over a day. Is it ethical to waste human meat?
I guess this all sounds controversial, disgusting, distasteful, and so on. Sorry about that. Our culture has taught us that it is wrong to eat dead people. Why has it taught us that? Our society used to be mainly Christian in the UK, that cold be affecting today's culture. Or maybe cannibalism isn't evolutionally very efficient. Maybe it's because eating creatures which have naturally died can give us diseases. Maybe it's because people associate eating food with killing it.
I'm not condoning cannibalism. I think it is wrong as God did not tell us to eat other humans. I know it's socially wrong: eating people from car accident scenes is sick. I know medically it's probably a bad idea. Though I'd like to know why non-Christians think it's ethically wrong to eat someone.
Anyone like to fill me in? Argue? Correct me? Back me up? I'd really like to know what people think.
Update: Tom's commented nicely. To summarize (not very well, sorry Tom):
Cannibalism is bad because of the same reason stealing and murder are wrong. It affects families / friends. People want to know where their deceased loved ones are. People want to visit where their corpse is to pay respects.
Last-resort cannibalism is like donating organs as its saving someones life. People could say there's nothing wrong with necrophilia if casual cannibalism is alright.
You don't need a God to tell you not to do something to make it wrong, people always know murder and stealing is wrong and the such things, its built into most people's morals.
My reply: If cannibalism is bad as it affects families / friends then it should logically be OK to eat someone with no family / friends. Maybe? On a different note, why do we as living people like to know about dead people? Why does it help with grieving? I don't really know psychology stuff.
Good point about cannibalism being like donating organs. I never thought of that. Necrophilia is a whole other (grim) topic, but to summarize I think sex is best when 2 people are in love (e.g. married). I think necrophilia is wrong for the living person, though I don't (personally, at least yet) respect dead bodies. For example, I would have no problem with my body being chucked away or used for ammunition testing if I was dead.
Where did we get morals from? If we murdered then our friends would not like us and we would be at a higher risk of getting murdered ourselves. The same with stealing. It's bad for society, so society affects our morals. Do we get our morals from anywhere else? Cannibalism is only bad for society as it is bad for society. If it were socially acceptable to murder, steal and cannibalize then people would stop killing, for fear of death; they would stop stealing, for fear of burglary. What reason would they have to stop cannibalizing?
Becky has also commented about vampirism, (most probably as it's that day of the year when little kids come round, knocking on your door and you wish you had one of these). Vampires generally only take blood from living victims. This is basically murder. If the person is dead already and someone just wanted to drink their blood (some people are actually into that kind of thing) then that's a different matter.
What about if a living person has a limb amputated then donates it to you for food? That would be a weird thing to do but I don't see anything morally wrong with it. What if that same person said when they were dead they would be OK with someone eating them? That is it morally right? What if on average the general population didn't mind their dead body being eaten? In the same way that most people are OK with donating organs. Then would it be morally wrong?
All very interesting hypothetical situations. Though remember readers: eating people is wrong (at least for now).
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