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posted by martyb on Saturday March 10 2018, @03:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the Newest-Entrée-at-Milliways?-Long-Pig-Bacon? dept.

'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist mulls 'taboo against cannibalism' ending as lab-grown meat improves

What if human meat is grown? Could we overcome our taboo against cannibalism?"
- @RichardDawkins - 6:15 AM - 3 Mar 2018

https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/969939225180364805
https://archive.fo/kSmgi

"Lab-grown 'clean' meat could be on sale by end of 2018, says producer"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-grown-available-restaurants-2018-global-warming-greenhouse-emissions-a8236676.html

"'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist mulls 'taboo against cannibalism' ending as lab-grown meat improves"
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/6/richard-dawkins-mulls-taboo-against-cannibalism-en/

and:

https://www.nationalreview.com/blog/corner/richard-dawkins-eating-human-meat-cannibalism-taboo/


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @05:15AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @05:15AM (#650402)

    I don't see the logic here, you might as well wonder whether our acceptance of artificial flavorings will change how we feel about drinking bleach.

    We don't (just) abstain from eating people because it's "gross", but because it associated with a lot of problems. Sure, you no longer have to murder someone if you grow the meats in a vat, but prion disease is one of those things you really don't want.

  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday March 10 2018, @06:43AM (3 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday March 10 2018, @06:43AM (#650430) Journal

    I'm sure with lab-grown meat, you could ensure that there are no prions in it. BTW, prions in beef are just as dangerous (mad cow disease!), yet we don't declare eating beef to be morally unacceptable (well, some people do, but not for health reasons). Instead we make rules to avoid prions in beef.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday March 10 2018, @08:25AM (2 children)

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday March 10 2018, @08:25AM (#650453) Journal

      But why go to the trouble of growing human meat and ensuring there are no prions, when other meats that do not need to be checked as much are readily available? We certainly aren't suffering from food shortages. Situations where the choice is cannibalism or starvation are exceedingly rare, with the only incident I recall being that plane that crashed in the Andes in 1972.

      Consider a related subject: fertilizer. We don't fertilize crops with our own shit -- unless desperate like The Martian. It's a very bad idea, as it provides a much shorter, easier cycle for parasites and diseases to spread.

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday March 10 2018, @09:06AM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday March 10 2018, @09:06AM (#650464) Journal

        That's besides the point. We certainly don't need human meat. And I actually don't expect anyone growing human meat in the lab (or more exactly, I expect people to grow human flesh for medical purposes, or maybe for experiments, but I don't think it will ever be grown for consumption as food).

        But note that we don't need pork either. We could survive quite fine never eating pork in our entire life (and there are many people in the world who do exactly that). Yet pork is bought a lot, and many people wouldn't be willing to go without it. So if there were a significant market for lab-grown human meat, then it would be produced whether we need it or not.

        Indeed, if there were enough people wanting to eat human meat, we'd have an illegal market for it right now. After all, organized crime never had any issues with killing or otherwise harming humans for monetary gain.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday March 10 2018, @10:30AM

        by wonkey_monkey (279) on Saturday March 10 2018, @10:30AM (#650485) Homepage

        But why go to the trouble of growing human meat and ensuring there are no prions, when other meats that do not need to be checked as much are readily available?

        If the other meat doesn't need to be checked, why would the human meat have to be checked? If the process doesn't generate prions it doesn't generate prions.

        Still it seems obvious that growing human meat is not the best idea when other options are equally available, simply because it's never been a regular part of the human diet.

        --
        systemd is Roko's Basilisk