Question

I find the idea of cannibalism repulsive. But is it a moral issue? Suppose that some small religious sect in this country included in their death rituals the eating of a small portion of flesh from the deceased and regarded that as a very important part of their religious practices and an important part of honoring their dead. Should such practices be legally prohibited? Would such practices be morally wrong?

Answer 1

Cannibalism can be considered as a moral issue when it comes to killing people and then eating their flesh . In rituals where cannibalism is practiced where people eat flesh of a dead person then the concept of morality takes a beating . In this case there is no killing of a human being is done . The individual is already dead and it is part of a ritual . An action is morally wrong when it inflicts harm to someone but in this case there is no harm to any living being . Also cannibalism is permissible in life and death situations.In these types of situations morality again takes a beating . If the practices are done to honour the dead then it should not be considered as morally wrong practice as it is very clear that it is not doing any harm to a living being .An also in order to understand this an ethno-relativistic perspective is needed . One should judge this act from their own cultural beliefs .