# Legality of Cannibalism

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-cannibalism/320740>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 8, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-cannibalism/320740 "2005-09-08T23:47:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-cannibalism/320740/21 "2005-09-10T03:57:20Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> I don’t think it’d be legal to eat the leg while he’s alive just because that’s assault. You can’t consent to assault.

After he removes the leg from his body, is it still considered part of him? What if he (the owner of the leg) butchers and cooks it, so that there’s no chance of it being reattached?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-cannibalism/320740/22 "2005-09-10T03:57:42Z")

</div>

> [@scm1001](#):
>
> Put the corpse on the roof for everyone to see

This, at least, isn’t very far from an actual funeral practice.  
[

> [@www.nps.gov](#):
>
> Early plains people had placed their dead on raised platforms or under low piles of rock.

]([http://www.nps.gov/knri/teach/history.htm](http://www.nps.gov/knri/teach/history.htm))My point being, I suppose, that it would be impossible to define ‘desecration’ without stepping on _someone_’s toes, culturally speaking.

The biggest unanswered questions here are these: Who owns a corpse, and what restrictions exist on what the owner of a corpse can do with it?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-cannibalism/320740.md?page=1)