Medical cannibalism

If one includes the drinking of human blood in one's understanding of "cannibalism" (which the Ancient Romans themselves would not have done), then medical cannibalism in Europe can be traced back to Ancient Rome, where the blood of wounded gladiators was sometimes drunk out of a belief that it could cure epilepsy.[2]

Medical cannibalism in Europe reached its peak in the sixteenth century, with the practice becoming widespread in Germany, France, Italy, and England.[3] At that time, most "raw materials" for the practice came from mummies stolen from Egyptian tombs; additionally skulls were taken from Irish burial sites and gravediggers sometimes robbed and sold body parts. Medicines were created from human bones, blood, and fat and believed to treat many types of illnesses. Tinctures to treat internal bleeding were made by soaking mummified bodies in alcohol or vinegar.[1][3] Powdered skull was used to treat ailments of the head, and was sometimes mixed with chocolate to treat apoplexy.[1][3] In the early 19th century, Englishmen still treated epilepsy by mixing skull with molasses.[1][3] In addition, human fat was used to treat problems of the outer body, by either rubbing it directly on the skin or soaking the bandage in fat prior to applying it on the wound.[1][3]

As such practices became more common, the principle that "like cures like" was used to determine the treatment for various ailments.[1][3] For example, parts of the head were used to treat issues relating to the head and eyes of dead people were collected and used to treat ophthalmological issues.

Blood, specifically, soon evolved to be seen as a substantial elixir – especially fresh, warm human blood because it was believed to still possess the soul of the deceased. For example, it was believed that drinking the blood of a strong person or a wise person would result in an increase of strength or wisdom, respectively, because once ingested, the spirit of the deceased connected with that of the consumer and lend them its power.[1] This belief was especially common in Germany. Even the poor, who could not afford other remedies, took part in this practice by bringing a cup to executions, paying the executioner a small fee, then filling their cup with the fresh blood.[1][3] The execution of criminals was seen as having a double advantage: alive they were "a burden on the nation", but their dead bodies had "the power to serve a public good" by improving the health of others.[4]

Europeans also adopted a belief they considered to be of Ancient Egyptian origin, namely that the more valuable corpses were those of young individuals, especially those that had died a brutal sudden death, for it was believed that the spirit would remain trapped within the body for a longer period of time, and thus have greater healing powers.[1][3]

In China, the consumption of human flesh was considered a highly effective medical treatment at least since the Tang dynasty (618–907). It was recommended by the Bencao Shiyi, an influential medical reference book published in the early 8th century, as well as in similar later manuals.[5] Together with the ethical ideal of filial piety, according to which young people were supposed to do everything in their power to support their parents and parents-in-law, this idea lead to a unique form of voluntary cannibalism, in which a young person cut some of the flesh out of their body and gave it to an ill parent or parent-in-law for consumption. The majority of the donors were women, frequently daughters-in-law of the patient.[6][7]

The devoted daughter-in-law would tie her thigh or her arm very tightly with a piece of clothing. She would then use a very sharp knife to quickly slice off a piece from her upper arm or upper thigh. The flesh would immediately be mixed in with soup or gruel, which had been heated in preparation, and this would then be offered to the dying mother-in-law or father-in-law.[6]

The Official Dynastic Histories describe more than 110 cases of such voluntary offerings that took place between the early 7th and the early 20th century.[8] There were still occasional cases in the 1970s and 1980s, according to newspaper reports.[9][10] The body parts cut most often were (in this order) thighs, upper arms, and livers.[11] While most of the donors were young adults or possibly teenagers, some were girls or less commonly boys aged from 7 to 12.[12][13]

While these acts were (at least nominally) voluntary and the donors usually (though not always) survived them, several sources also report of children and adolescents who were killed so that their flesh could be eaten for medical purposes. According to some sources, eating the boiled heart of a child was considered a good way of extending one's own life (especially if regularly repeated) – though inevitably deadly for the "donor".[14] Emperor Wuzong of Tang supposedly ordered provincial officials to send him "the hearts and livers of fifteen-year-old boys and girls" when he had become seriously ill, hoping in vain this medicine would cure him. Later private individuals sometimes followed his example, paying soldiers who kidnapped preteen children for their kitchen.[15]

In later times, medical manuals took a more ambivalent stance towards the use of human flesh. The influential Bencao Gangmu, first published in the late 16th century, advises in its introduction against the use of human body parts for medicine. But in its main part it nevertheless covers "35 different parts or organs of the human body ... considered to be a good cure for certain diseases", among them human flesh (whose consumption was said to cure tuberculosis) and blood.[16]

During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), hundreds of incidents of cannibalism occurred, mostly motivated by hatred against supposed "class enemies".[17] However, health concerns sometimes played a role as well, as the writer Zheng Yi observed. In a case recorded by the local authorities, a school teacher in Mengshan County "heard that consuming a 'beauty's heart' could cure disease". He then chose a 13- or 14-year-old student of his and publicly denounced her as a member of the enemy faction, which was enough to get her killed by an angry mob. After the others had left, he "cut open the girl's chest ..., dug out her heart, and took it home to enjoy".[18]

Another teacher, from Cangwu County, had been present when the vice principal of his school was killed and consumed on the school premises, by pupils and teachers alike. He admitted having joined in the feast after one of his students "held up a piece of dried human flesh the size of a finger and said to me: 'You have chronic stomach problems. This is good for you!' Thus, I also ate the flesh."[19] In a further case that took place in Wuxuan County, likewise in the Guangxi region, three brothers were beaten to death as supposed enemies; afterwards their livers were cut out, baked, and consumed "as medicine".[20]

In the mid-1990s, Hong Kong journalists exposed "an underground market in human foetuses" in both Mainland China and Hong Kong. Traders connected to hospitals sold aborted fetuses for consumption, charging "up to $300 apiece" and promising "all sorts of medical benefits ... from rejuvenation to a cure for asthma".[21] While recovering from an accident, the director Fruit Chan was repeatedly served an "'exceptional' soup" by his doctor, finding out only later that it was "made of fetus". Chan and the screenwriter Lilian Lee believe that they also unknowingly ate such soup while researching in hospitals for their movie Dumplings (2004), which features this custom.[22]

In 2011/2012, more than 17,000 capsule pills purported to be filled with the powdered flesh of human fetuses or stillborns and "touted for increasing vitality and sex drive" were seized by South Korean customs officials from ethnic Koreans living in China, who had tried to bring them into South Korea to consume the capsules themselves or distribute them to others.[23][24][25] Some experts later suggested that the pills may actually have been made of human placenta, as placentophagy is a legal and relatively widespread practice in China.[26][27]