This WEB log considers issues involving assisted suicide/euthanasia, bioethics, human cloning, biotechnology, and the dangers of animal rights/liberation. My views expressed here, as in my books and other writings, reflect my understanding that the philosophy of human exceptionalism is the bedrock of universal human rights. Or, to put it another way: human life matters. (The opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of any organization with which I am affiliated.)
I am sure Tom Cruise was kidding when he said he would eat his new baby's placenta. I shrugged it off, and firgured the idea was an urban legend. Then, I began to see some items that it is not unheard of. Which got me to thinking: The placenta is a human organ. Wouldn't eating one be a form of cannibalism? Just when you think you have heard of everything...
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:00 PM
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Apparently eating human placenta is really good for you. It is apparently very rich in iron and actually helps a woman recover from the strain of giving birth. Or so I have heard. I'm not sure it counts as cannabilism in the traditional sense, although I suppose it technically is.
Yea. It is human flesh. If one wants iron, eat a cow's liver. As for the post partum depression cure, it seems akin to the myth that nun's urine can cure infertility.
One, it's not "cannibalism" since any more than drinking urine or giving blood. It is something no longer part of a body..
Two: Animals eat the placenta, and giving it to a mother to replace her iron and give her strength in very poor societies might make sense.
But a husband? It's nuts.
Indeed, Cruise' extreme control of Holmes suggest he is pathologically trying to control her: Something we see in abusive relationships...
Except, it is human flesh, which would seem to me to make it cannibalism. Drinking urine isn't cannibalism because it is not part of a human body. It is waste product. But if I gave blood and someone took the vial and consumed it, wouldn't that be cannibalism?
I am not sure the distinction that a placenta is a discarded, unneeded organ makes a big difference. If someone was killed for the purpose, that would clearly be cannibalism.
I am aware that animals eat placenta. Some animals also eat each other.
Weird issue.
All I can say is...YUCK!
Technically, I don't see how eating the placenta is any more cannibalistic than swallowing a dude's "baby batter."
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