I think, morally speaking (and probably taste too) I'd be ok about eating someone if my life depended on it.

[EleanorHandbasket]

I was just pondering this as I cooked some bacon. As you do.

Pigs are lovely, I'm very fond, but I've no issue with eating them. Lambs too, and all sorts of other animals. And I thought, woudl I eat, say, a dolphin?

Hmm. Probably. Especially if I was really hungry and it was all there was.



And then I thought, well, what about a person.

And do you know, my brain doesn't scream in horror at the idea. If I was marooned on a desert island for eg, with someone else, and they starved to death, I'd probably be ok with cooking and eating what was left of them. And in fact, if someone else did the butchering bit, I'd probably chow down fairly happily.



I've never really thought about it before. But there you go.

AIBU?

[Nagoo]

@ turn out to be horse.

[wamabama]

Starving hurts at first but then eventually the pain goes and you basically just turn into a zombie. So because I know that I wouldn't resort to eating flesh and i'd just accept my fate and die. Honestly. I'd try my hardest to find some plant form first but if that failed and it was either eat a corpse (of any creature!) or die then i'd die.

Obviously it might be different in that position when instincts take over and gladly hardly anyone has to go through a situation like this so it's not a dilemma we'll face! But just thinking about whether I could, no I couldn't. Doesn't matter that the person is already dead, it's flesh and it makes me shudder all over and feel sick.

[SacreBlue]

Sorry flesh is just a great word has the same divisive properties as moist

[SPsCliffingAllOverMN]

I'm actually watching TLCs Strangest Addictions and a woman drinks blood! Animal blood and has a live donor for human blood

That's freaking me out so not a chance I would eat a human stir fry

[JamieandtheMagicTorch]

I don't think I would/could either wamabama

[cheezypeas]

I dunno what this says about me but I am thinking of this in terms of a bush tucker trial. Given the choice of a kangaroos knob or nice bit of human flesh, I'd go for human flesh. It tastes like chicken apparantly....I like chicken.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Yanbu.

I think my survival instinct would kick in. Might turn the person in question face down first though. I don't think I'd so anything completely weird like eat their face.

[ThisReallyIsNotSPNopeNotAtAll]

Ali What about the arse?

Couldn't eat a human. I'm funny with meat so I wouldn't know when it was cooked right and really couldn't eat it raw.

I'd be the person everyone waits to die so they can eat tbh.

So I wouldn't be bothered if someone ate me to survive but only if I died of natural causes. Dont kill me on purpose to eat. That's a little disrespectful

That is all I ask

[reelingintheyears]

As long as it's minted human shanks then YANBU.

I might pass on the liver though.

With fava beans and a nice little Chianti.

[EleanorHandbasket]

Om nom nom

[Hazelbrowneyes]

I could eat a human. I don't think I could butcher a human though (actually, I can't butcher anything - I'm funny about bones and "stringy" bits) so I'd have to get someone else to do that.

[QueenStromba]

You're thinking of Kuru SacreBleu - it's a prion disease (like CJD or BSE) found in tribes in Papua New Guinea where it is traditional to eat your loved ones once they are dead to honour them. Which means that whether or not the idea of eating someone repulses you is probably entirely cultural.

The British are a lot more squeamish about meat in general than most other cultures. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that most of us are so far removed from the meat production process that to us meat is something that comes in a plastic tray not a part of an animal that was roaming the fields a few weeks ago. I'd say a large proportion of people would go veggie if they had to slaughter the animal themselves but in other cultures that's the norm. We've also moved away from eating offal which are the parts of an animal that make it really hard to not think about the fact that you are eating a part of a dead animal. I used to not be able to eat meat on the bone for that reason.

Anyway, I'd probably eat a (freshly) dead person if it was that or starve to death and I'd worry more about the diseases I might catch rather than the moral implications of it. I also have no problems with the idea of people eating my corpse to survive - I am an organ donor after all.

[ImTooHecsyForYourParty]

There's very little people wouldn't do to survive, if they only knew it.

When comfy, well fed and warm, we can hold our hands up and say nooooooooo, I couldn't do X, Y, Z - it's wrong.

But I am very confident that all that would go out of the window if you were staring death in the face.

[ThisReallyIsNotSPNopeNotAtAll]

Cant believe mumsnet is full of cannibals! Remind me not to get shipwrecked with any of you

Vultures the lot of you!

[VerySmallSqueak]

I second that recommendation ami.

I would definitely eat human flesh if my life depended on it.

[FairyJen]

I denfinitley could. I think some people could be rather tasty, dp has been tenderising in ale for 28 years so far. Delish!

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Sp

I'd do as the people who crashed in Argentina did,turn them over and take meat from the backs of thighs and buttocks. Just in case we were found.

I wouldn't kill someone to eat them unless things got really desperate.

OP you've made me give this way too much thought

[yamsareyammy]

No, I would rather die.

[ThisReallyIsNotSPNopeNotAtAll]

Yams looks like we are the ones that would get eaten

To those who would eat a human, you eat someone you knew? Would you get your pets? Roasting a Guinea Pig with cat smoothie for afters?

[Alisvolatpropiis]

I would definitely eat my pets if it came to it. Not least because they'd be easier to catch than somebody else's.

Not sure about a person I know but human survival instinct makes people do strange things - cutting off ones own arm for example. So maybe.

Not sure if I'm really pragmatic or a sociopath now

[ImTooHecsyForYourParty]

It's hard to say, because it really is difficult to honestly put yourself in that situation.

I sit here, in my comfy chair, on my pc, in my warm home, having eaten my dinner and ponder whether I could eat you if I had to

But I honestly think I would. And I don't have any pets, but i don't see next door's turtles or the dog on the other side lasting long.

The big question is whether you would actually kill someone in order to eat them, or would just eat someone who had died.

I truly believe that when it came right down to it, and you knew you would die otherwise - there is nothing you wouldn't do.

Survival instinct is so strong.

[yamsareyammy]

ThisreallyisnotSP, I hadnt thought of that! Hope you and I dont get nightmares.
I was looking at it that I was the only one alive, and that the others were dead. Still dont think I would eat them
I also figured that after about 10 days I would be so delerious that I wouldnt care about living or dying, so I fugured I would only have the 10 days to actually think about the problem.
Would eat the pets I think.

just a thought. What would vegetarians do?