According to many halachic authorities, there is no true prohibition against eating human flesh or its by-products.[1] In fact, it is essentially permissible to consume human blood. For example, one whose mouth is bleeding is permitted to ingest such blood.[2] Even drinking a glass of one's own blood is technically permissible according to Torah law. The rabbis, however, made a decree forbidding one to consume blood that has left the body. As such, one whose blood dripped onto food is required to remove the blood from the food before eating it.

The reason that the rabbis forbade consuming blood that left the body was due to maarit ayin, a situation where onlookers may be led to believe that one is violating halacha. In this case, onlookers might be led to believe that one is consuming forbidden blood.[3] If the human body is truly not kosher, then consuming human blood would be a Torah violation of “what comes out from the impure is impure" and forbidden accordingly.[4]

Other authorities disagree, and rule that although consuming human flesh is not as bad as consuming other forbidden foods, it is nevertheless forbidden by Torah law.[5] According to this approach, the prohibition against eating human flesh is derived from a verse in the Torah. After God created Adam, He commanded him to keep a vegetarian diet, and so it was with early humanity. After the Flood, however, God told Noach that animals (“remess”) were now permitted to be eaten.[6] From the Torah's use of the word "remess," a term which refers to animals of the field, we learn that the Torah only permitted the meat of animals but not that of humans.[7]

The Rambam explains similarly:

Human flesh is prohibited based on a positive commandment. The Torah lists seven species of animals, about which it says, “These are the animals that you may eat." This implies that anything else may not be eaten. And a prohibition derived from a positive commandment is a positive commandment in and of itself.

Nevertheless, the Rambam says that eating human flesh is not punishable by lashes as is the consumption of most other forbidden foods.[8] According to this approach, the prohibition against cannibalism is not simply because human beings lack the two kosher signs required of animals, but rather, it is because the Torah simply did not include humans in its list of permitted animals.

Rav Kook explains that the reason the Torah did not explicitly forbid cannibalism is because doing so is simply unnecessary. He says that we do not need an explicit prohibition in order to avoid an act that is naturally repulsive.[9] Indeed, eating human flesh would also be a violation of “ba’al teshaktzu,” the prohibition against doing anything repulsive or disgusting.[10] It has also been suggested that an explicit verse prohibiting cannibalism would have been insulting to the inherent moral code and intelligence of human beings, not to mention that it would have essentially equated humans and animals.

The prohibition against cannibalism can also be derived from the fact that it is not possible to perform shechita on a human being as is done on animals before they may be eaten.[11] Similarly, human flesh is not subject to the prohibition against eiver min hachai since eiver min hachai only applies to animals that must be ritually slaughtered before eating them.[12]

There is also a view that there is actually no authentic source in the Torah for the prohibition against cannibalism and that it is simply a prohibition instituted by the rabbis.[13] Eating a human being who has died would also be forbidden under the prohibition against deriving any benefit from the dead.[14] It goes without saying that one is permitted to consume anything in order to save one’s life.[15]

* *

When asked if human placenta is kosher, Rabbi Ofer Livant answered as follows:[16]

Is a human placenta kosher? The mishna (Chulin 77a) says that one can eat the placenta found inside a slaughtered animal, and that in any case it does not have the regular status of tumah (impurity) of meat. To oversimplify a complicated topic, the Rambam (Ma’achalot Assurot 5:13) says that it is forbidden to eat the expelled placenta of an animal that was not slaughtered, and the Ra’avad says that since it is not treated like meat regarding tumah, it is not prohibited to eat it either.

The Gemara (Bechorot 7b), as understood by the Tur and Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 81:4), permits eating a donkey’s placenta because it is a “mere pirsha (secretion).” The Shach (81:11) applies this to any animal’s placenta, whereas the Pri Chadash (81:12) argues that it applies uniquely to a donkey. The Gemara (Chulin 113b) says it is obvious that there is no violation of cooking a placenta with milk because it is pirsha. In summary, while placentas certainly do not have a regular status of meat, it is unclear whether it is permitted to eat them.

A human being is not a forbidden species in the full sense, as mother’s milk and human blood are kosher, albeit with rabbinic regulations as to how they can be ingested (Ketubot 60a). There is a dispute among Rishonim whether it is permitted (at least on the level of Torah law) to eat human flesh, forbidden similar to a non-kosher species, or it is a lower-level Torah violation (Rambam, Ma’achalot Assurot 2:3 accepted by the Rama YD 79:1). Is a placenta considered flesh in this regard? Not only is it a temporary part of the body (similar to the permitted milk), but placentas are considered pirsha rather than flesh.

With the lack of consensus or even discussion among poskim on eating human placentas, we are uneasy endorsing it in the face of the halachic questions. However, in a case where the placenta is processed into a pill for medical purposes, we can be more lenient. Dehydrating and grinding likely renders it inedible, under which circumstances there is no Torah violation, all the more so when ingesting it for medicinal reasons (see Igrot Moshe, Orach Chayim II:92). Swallowing a non-kosher substance in a capsule (the kashrut of capsules is a pertinent question beyond our present scope) is lenient enough to be permitted for the purpose of serious, non-life-saving medicinal purposes (see Minchat Shlomo I:17). It is not clear that this treatment is a “recognized cure” or that there are not equivalent alternatives (a requirement according to the Rama, YD 155:3). However, with so many grounds for leniency, we do not object to the ingestion of encapsulated powdered placenta.

**

Also closely related to our discussion is the following which I found on-line:[17]

In the late middle ages and early modern period, a very popular remedy for illness was human flesh, or at least medicine derived from human flesh. “Medicinal cannibalism” was practiced throughout Europe and parts of the Middle East. Some of this human flesh came from mummies that were found in places such as Egypt, while others were from artificially produced mummies, i.e. human flesh and body parts which were treated in order to produce medicine. Because of the high demand, there was apparently a flourishing trade in stolen bodies and body parts which were then sold for medicine.

It is not surprising that this issue is discussed in rabbinic literature. The Radbaz was asked about both trading in mummy parts and using it for medicinal purposes. (Teshuvot Haradbaz 3:548):

You asked me to tell you my opinion as to on what everyone relies in using the flesh of the dead that is called “mummy” as a remedy, even in a case where there is no danger and it isn’t ingested. Not only that, rather they also trade and do business in this, and this is a prohibited benefit, as we hold that it is prohibited to benefit from the flesh of the dead, as it’s written ‘And Miriam died there.'

The Radbaz argued that one is permitted to eat parts of a mummy and trade in them since the flesh has been treated with chemicals and has changed so much that it is not really “flesh” anymore…there is no prohibition in eating it.

Questions about mummies were asked of a number of other halakhists, with R. Abraham B. Mordecai ha-Levi disagreeing with the Radbaz and prohibiting both the eating of, and trading in, mummies (Ginat Veradim, YD 1:4). In addition, this responsum has been used in modern discussions of organ transplantation and the question of cannibalism. Some have claimed that the Jews played a significant role in the mummy trade, and there is even a report of some Jews still eating flesh for medicinal purposes in the 19th century.

[1] Ramban Vayikra 11:3; Ramban, Ketubot 60a; Ra'avad, Hilchot Ma'achalot Asurot 3:4.

[2] YD 66:10.

[3] YD 66:10.

[4] Bechorot 5b.

[5] Rambam, Hilchot Maachalot Assurot 2:3, 3:4; Rema, YD 79:1.

[6] Bereishit 9:3. The question is asked: How were Adam and Noach able to offer animal sacrifices before it was permitted to eat meat? This is because anything that is forbidden to be eaten cannot be brought as a sacrifice! It is explained that the prohibition against eating animals prior to Noach’s time was not because animals were deemed to be non-kosher. Rather, they had the status of a kosher product that people were simply forbidden to eat, just like kosher food on a fast day. Indeed, it was permitted to offer sacrifices on a fast day even though it is forbidden to eat.

[7] Hatorah V'hamitzva (Malbim), Vayikra 11:3; Ibn Ezra, Vayikra 11:3.

[8] Rambam, Hilchot Maachalot Assurot 2:3.

[9] The Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace p.9,12.

[10] YD 116:6.

[11] Ritva, Ketubot 60a.

[12] Ran, Ketubot 60a.

[13] Teshuvot Harashba 1:364.

[14] Avoda Zara 29b; YD 349.

[15] Yoma 83a.

[16] Cited at: http://www.quora.com/Is-a-human-placenta-kosher. It has been edited and condensed here.

[17] Edited slightly here for brevity. See the full excerpt at: http://menachemmendel.net/blog/flesh-eating-jews.