Human cannibalism is the practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. It has occurred across history and geography in a wide range of contexts, from Pleistocene-era hominins and documented instances in ancient Egypt and during famines, to islands such as Fiji, the Congo, and parts of Melanesia where the practice was at times culturally embedded, and to modern survival cases such as the Donner Party and shipwreck disasters. Common law treats killing another person for food as murder regardless of the survival circumstances, a principle settled in the English case R v Dudley and Stephens in 1884, which held that necessity is no defense to a charge of murder and ended the earlier practice of drawing lots among shipwrecked sailors to choose who would be eaten. The practice remains documented today mainly in isolated cases involving severe mental illness or extreme survival situations rather than as an accepted cultural custom.
Facts
Typical PenaltyArmin Meiwes was first convicted of manslaughter in 2004 for killing and eating a willing victim and sentenced to eight years and six months in prison 1 Elements of OffenseUnder modern English law, killing another person in order to eat them is always considered a crime, even in the most extreme survival circumstances 2 Notable ExampleArmin Meiwes, the Rotenburg Cannibal, was convicted of murder on retrial in 2006 and sentenced to life imprisonment for killing and eating a man in Germany who had consented to be killed 1 Jurisdiction VariationGerman courts held in the Meiwes case that a victim's consent to being killed did not make the killing legal, though the victim's impaired mental state was given special consideration 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
Sources
1. Armin Meiwes (Wikipedia)
First trial, 2004 section
On 30 January 2004, the regional court of Kassel convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight years and six months in prison.
Retrial, 2006 section
On 10 May 2006, the higher regional court of Frankfurt am Main convicted Meiwes of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Retrial reasoning section
The trial acknowledged the agreement of the victim as not occurring under force, but emphasised that this did not make the act of killing legal, with special consideration for Brandes' impaired mental state.
View the Source2. Human cannibalism (Wikipedia)
Institutionalized, survival, and pathological cannibalism sectionQuote, Institutionalized, survival, and pathological cannibalism section
In modern English law, the latter is always considered a crime, even in the most trying circumstances.
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