(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

Law-type persons, can you confirm for me that cannibalim--specifically the act of one human ingesting the flesh of another--is illegal in the United States? KTHNXBYE.


(I'm talking only about the eating. Not about the killing to get the body or trafficking in body parts. Those, I'm comfortably sure are illegal).

Comments

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not a federal crime, and after a bit of searching in LEXIS, it doesn't appear to be a crime in New York. So, I actually don't think it's a crime to eat human remains in New York, as long you didn't cause the human's death. No doubt a loophole that will be closed after the first major incident, but...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Just checking, thank you. I've read extensively about cannibalism, but never once--excepting that case in Germany--where there was legal action against the cannibalism specifically. Most times, there were enough other criminal behaviors--murder being the most common, of course--to distract from the cannibalism, making it more a garnish to sell papers than anything else.

Too many google searches threw up too many pop-culture or social darwinism links. I figured I'd consult law schoolers.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Isn't it a violation of section 4200 of the NYS Public Health Law?

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Ah, didn't think of the Public Health Law. Sec. 4210-a makes it a Class E felony to dissect a human body without authority of law or permission of the deceased.

But, if you found someone who put in their will that in the event of their death, they wanted to be eaten, the Public Health law is pretty clear about allowing the deceased to have whatever he would have wanted done with his body.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

I dunno -- 4210 and the following rules about tissue donation seem to make it clear that outside of dissection or donation, the only acceptable dispositions (broadly) are those in 4200: burial or cremation. Other sections seem to control the manner and ritual of those dispositions.

For instance, I don't think air burial would be permissible in NYS. Zoroastrians might bring suit, but State interest in the public health seems sufficient to defeat a religious claim.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the relative dearth of vultures in these southern parts...

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I guess you're already planning a menu for Halloween...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you caught me. Would you volunteer to die to serve the rest of us? Because it's illegal to kill and I can't buy the parts legally either.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Korean BBQ?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

If I had a grill!

^_^

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Human doesn't BBQ well without a lot of prep. Not a very sweet meat (in comparison to say lamb) but can take some sweetness from what it's served with. As of course with many other meats, the older the specimen the more likely for toughness so anything over 16 years if age is better off stewed.

I know, chinese hot pot ^_^ We can use a red broth to give it a Halloween horror type feel ^_^

Re: ^_^

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

And people think I'm creepy for talking about cannibalism? At least I don't know how to COOK PEOPLE!! Sheesh!

Re: ^_^

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Hey I have a reputation of being able to cook any mammal on this planet. Humans are mammals, so.......

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Ah, but she volunteered, you could still get charged with assisting suicide, or some variation thereof. No, you need a body that died as a complete accident.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Unless, of course, I did not actively encourage him committing suicide. If someone commits suicide in your home and you eat them, no harm done.

Really, the only problem is proving that it was suicide when you chop up and eat the evidence.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

I have that recipe for human placenta if you need it...

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Did you get it from Tom Cruise?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

...ew.

Besides which, I hear there's tastier parts to be had more easily. Everyone has breast meat, for example. Placenta would be less easy to come by, comparatively, though I suppose it has the benefit of not necessitating murder or sudden, complication-free death to obtain.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't breast meat be awfully fatty? If we're going after fatty human meat, why not just go to liposuctionist biohazard dumpsters like in Fight Club?

I admittedly got nauseous when I read about placenta paté in Extreme Cuisine, but I at least know it's out there.

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Breast meat, not all that great. Now if you really are looking for the best parts they say the cheeks of most animals are the tastiest. Another good spot would be the meat just under the shoulder blades and the meat from the lower back (braised would be the best way to serve).


*wonders why everyone is looking at him funny*

<.<
>.>
^_^

[plungerdna.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...it seems like it would depend if the receipient wanted his or her flesh eaten. If then answer is no than you have the perpatrator on assult. If the answer is yes, then you are a sick mother fucker.

That's at least my interoretation on the law based on my extensive knowledge of it...aka...watching a handful of law and order episodes.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Well, there are certain crimes associated with mistreatment of a dead body (that exist to prevent people from having sex with or otherwise desecrating corpses). However, I am not positive that cannibalism is strictly outlawed when there is no crime in the way you have obtained the body. If, for example, your roommate with no friends, no family, and no plans for his/her corpse dies in you apartment and you eat him/her, the chances are good that in most places in this country, you're committing no crime by eating them. The difficulty lies in proving you did nothing to them to cause them to die when you demonstrate a fondness for human flesh. People will have a hard time believing the, "No, I swear, he just died!" excuse.

[plungerdna.livejournal.com]

I thought you were talking about a living person.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I'm talking about cannibalism that occurs when no crime has been committed to put the body in the possession of a cannibal. As if the body just fell from the sky. The reason I even need to ask is because it's hardly ever addressed outside the context of murder or coercion as most cannibals don't get so lucky as to have volunteers to be their dinner.

[fairest.livejournal.com]

I find this theoretical case a little disturbing... :P

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

LOL my first thought was "Did I see this on Law and Order? No? Guess it must be legal..."

[dotsomething.livejournal.com]

Goodness. Do I want to know why you want to know this?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Purely informational. I read an article about a man confessing to the murder of his girlfriend but not to eating her body (he claimed to be chopping up and cooking the body to better feed it to dogs). This was in Mexico, however. I was asking about the US for my own edification, since rarely do you hear about cannibalism divorced from other crimes.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Oh, so this isn't for Halloween. I guess you'll have to settle for a box full of macaroni labeled
"Frankenstein's Brains" on the side.