this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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If I'm not mistaken, any properly prepared meat (muscle tissue) should be fine. Most disorders caused by cannibalism happen when consuming brain matter, which, at least for the most part, humans largely don't eat the brains of any animal...
I get why people are opposed to it, and I'd never force anyone to eat anything that they didn't want to. But the fact is, if you only eat the meat/muscle, like we do with other animals, and you prepare it much in the same way through proper handling and cooking, it's generally not hazardous to your health.
It becomes a problem when you start eating other parts beyond the muscles.... Honestly, as long as we're not breeding humans for meat, and the individual who has expired is okay with their remains being eaten, then I don't really see any problem with it personally.
I don't think many, if any, people would consent to their body becoming food for their fellow man after they die, but if they did, I don't really see a problem with doing it, provided proper food safety is considered (as with any meat).
In general the only time this has happened where people have been pretty okay with the fact that it happened is in cases of extreme desperation, like being trapped on a mountain in freezing cold temperatures after a plane crash, with no food aside from the other (already deceased) passengers.... In those cases most of society turns a blind eye saying "they did what they had to do to survive" or some other rationalization.
AFAIK, you are correct. The prion diseases are primarily a risk from consuming brains. However, meat can get contaminated during the slaughtering and butchering process. so eating animals (or people) that have prion diseases is usually strongly discouraged. Especially since prion diseases can take years to show up in people.
It's also a problem with Chronic Wasting Disease in deer.
i'd love to have a bbq/funeral were i to die, but unfortunately, in the US, the things you can legally have done with your corpse are pretty limited. basically, you don't own your body after you die, and neither does anyone else, so you've gotta pick from a short list of allowed post-mortem activities.
Well additionally, meat is usually best tasting when the animal is more or less culled during the prime of their life, so not only would a young person have to be prescient enough to write a will, but be in the very small percentage of young people who also desire to be eaten.
This argument, even from a cold logical standpoint, still strikes me as rather nonsensical, as anyone who might actually desire this who had thought it through, would have had extensive life experience to come to such a conclusion. This would result in an elderly person essentially saying, "please eat my tough not succulent flesh after I pass away."
That's a fair argument.
I don't have anything more to add, but it's been a very interesting discussion.
Have a good day.
I agree with both your views, with the minor addendum of the elderly being fed to livestock, since they are much less picky about what they eat.
Personally I'd rather be turned into compost and fed to the worms beneath a tree.