considering that prions are untreatable, fatal, and that it's beyond the means of the average person to neutralize prions, radroach probably is safer.

So just keep one of these.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Food_Sanitizer

Probably wouldn't work, considering that the WHO recommends these procedures for sterilizing instruments that may have be contaminated with prions:


As you can see, the recommended sterilization methods would do bad things to food.
Also, I highly doubt that most people would have food sanitizers. Finally, Prions are primarily protein, and aren't prokaryotes.

Morally Wrong and disgusting and the Enclave does not approve of it.

Its just UnAmerican

When it comes to health, you can catch diseases.
If it's for survival, then it is cool, anything to stay alive.
Morally, doesn't matter, it's an anarchist wasteland.

Personally, I don't find morality to be a relative factor. You can certainly deem an action justifiable, but that doesn't necessarily make it any less morally "wrong." Morality simply isn't something that changes depending on the relevant factors - if you feel cannibalism is morally bad in a civilized society, then it's still "wrong" if you're forced to do it to survive. As far as fictional purpose goes - that someone is forced to commit something they feel is inherently wrong, or an entire group adopts it as a primary source of food; serves to highlight just how dire the situation is. The circumstances don't make it "better," it only shows how far downhill things have gone.

My thoughts, anyway. :shrug:

Right and wrong are concepts created by humans. There is nothing more inherantly wrong with eating a human than there is with eating a cow. The only reason that animals don't typicaly resort to canibalism is because of the health risks that come along with eating a creature or your own species (Animals may not know why they don't want to eat each other but it's in their insticts. Having said that though, I don't think I could eat a human being. Like most people I've been raised to find the thought of such a thing to be repulsive. Besides, no matter how repressed my id may be, I still have the same "don't-eat-thy-neighbor" insticts that animals do. considering that it takes weeks to die of starvation, I don't think the dilema would ever present itself to me anyway. Even in the wastes there are plenty of edible things. There are trees around. Maybe dead, scraggly, 200 year old trees but still just as edible as any other plant. In fact being so old would make them very light and dry, making them easier to chew. Probably wouldn't taste very good and would be hard to chew but go at it long enough and it would work fine, at least until you can find something else. Go anywhere near the water and you'll find just about anything you'll need to survive. The water and Mirelurk eggs may be irradiated but considering the kinds of nasty health risks that come along with eating human flesh, I'd rather get radiation poisoning (espesialy with radaway being readily available.) Sure you might get clawed to death by a Mirelurk but how is that any different from any other day in the wastes? The real problem would be getting water. You may be able to survive for weeks without food but you can only live for a maximum of 4 days without water (usualy you won't make it much more than 2 days.) Eating a corpes would help you then (the human body is mostly water) but only if you eat it raw. Eating any raw meat has it's own set of health risks. Dying of a severe bacterial infection will be much more painful than dying of thirt or starvation. I'd rather starve. I don't really see any practical reason to eat a human corpes in the wastland. Just wait long enough and you'll get attacked by a wild dog or molerat anyway. Assuming you can survive that encounter, one of those would provide enough food for quite a while (unlike in FO3 where you can only get one bite from a whole animal.) And if you can't survive an encounter with a molerat, what the hell are you doing out in the wastes in the first place? If you were in the middle of a dry dessert with nothing but a dead guy and sand for miles in any direction, I still don't see much use in it. You'd just be delaying the inevitable. You'd die eventualy anyway but youd be dying with the weight of having eaten someone on your mind . Personaly I'd rather be thinking of other things if I were about to die.

Fixed, Wall O text has been supressed

i agree wholehearetedly. I cant look at the act of eating a human as inherently evil. not evil b y designe so much as implamentation. Say for example you kill an innocent man for the purpos of eating him. that is hwne it is evil only when consent is taken out of the equation. see my signature for an example of the perspective. some cultures embrace it as a way of dealign with their dead. does that make them evil monsters? some cultures lack a legal age of consent. does that make them "evil sick pedophiles"? we jump to the ide3a that cannibalism is inherently evil because of our upbringing. the values we were raised with. the human concept of morality is not black and white. its if flawed and variable. I personally accept many taboos Cannibalism included. So long as you don't hunt then who should care what one eats? as long as two partners have an understanding and agreement to be partners who should care ab out differences in six, age, or evan family (according tot he Bible after all we're all commiting incist. and we probobly actually are considering how it works)

Cannibalism is "morally" wrong because it transmits diseases, that's all. Furthermore you can contract http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease), a bit like Creutzfeldt–Jakob. That's why some religions for example like the Muslims or the Jews have strict diets imo.

alot of things can transmit diseases. including eating raw meat of any kind or eating bad fruit. being stuck in the cold or heat for extended period of time. being exposed to a number of different conditions. does it make them evil or morally wrong?

Yeah but.. how do I explain this in words.. the transmittance barrier is a lot lower. Diseases in one species may not effect the other but in cannibalism it's the same species you're feeding on i.o.w. you will contract the same diseases a lot easier.

yes but would we know better to cook the emat. or to not eat a disseased body in the first place? just because a situation has risks doesn't make it evil

You can cook all you want, it doesn't eliminate the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion in the meat.

"Good and Evil are a point of view Anakin" -- Chancellor Palpatine

they are. but in this case it seams like from out point of view the prions would be evil for causing harm instezad of the person what y our saying is that a man is evil if he does sotmhign that would cause himself harm then again there is also probobly processe of disinfecting the body. embalming fluid and all

What we're saying is, that eating a human body is simply riskier than eating other things. It's not a matter of good and evil, it's a matter of prions are incredibly dangerous.

ok now that makes sense i see where yo ur going with it.

With no alternatives, if there are alternatives and you do it that's sick. Why?....well there really isn't any logical reason why not, but it's still disguising to me. Honeslty if you're about to die...you do what you have to do. Principals are great until your dead.

Cannibalism is frowned upon in the wasteland because civilization is just beginning to bud. Remember that most cannibals that aren't already dead eat FRESH meat that can only be gotten by killing random people. If not, you'll run the risk of the dead body getting infected and you'll be ingesting that infected flesh. So the point isn't about eating the flesh, it's about killing wastelanders. Because if you kill a woman and a man, then that's one generation ended. Remember that the human population is dying so all the lives count...unless it's raiders.

Ha I love how surgeon general that sounds.

That depends, a cannibalistic slaver faction could hold humans as livestock, breed them, raise them, force them to breed again (creating more livestock), take them to a specialized butchery and finally eat them, just like everybody else does with brahmin.

Made me think of an old Horrible joke

2 cannibals are eating Ronald Mcdonald..
one turns to the other and says " hey does this clown taste funny to you??" (insert rimshot)

(sigh sorry everyone)

Though really folks why chance it hehe (like eating Fugu) just does not make much sense to me..

I love when people reference the Book of Eli when referring to all things apocolyptic.

Cannibal tip for cannibal wannabes : pick only the liver, tastiest part of the human body, also very nutrient ! :wink_smile:

As for people saying it would be okay to eat bodies in the Wasteland as long as you didn't kill them, well, I would like to add: as long as they are not rotten, fresh quality meat FTW !

:flamethrower: + :mohawk: = :foodndrink:

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I was joking guys, really, just a joke...a small one...
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:whistling:

I believe whole-heartedly that there is nothing more 'wicked' about eating human being than there is in eating a dog, a cat, a rabbit, or any other animal. There is no room in my mind for this superiority complex that we, as a species, seem inborn to possess. I believe it should be AVOIDED... purely on the basis that there are a great many diseases, including those caused by the oft-mentioned prion, that are -easily- transmitted through the consumption of the flesh of one's own species. Just on a genetic level, it makes it a thousand times more likely to become infected. It's similar to the reasons that inbreeding are frowned upon nowadays... because besides being a bit awkward, it also leads to genetic abnormalities being almost two or three times as likely in any offspring conceived.

There's a -reason- for some of these things, after all... but I don't think that makes them evil or 'wrong'... just ill-advised.

Still, in the end... if it's you or me, and we're alone in the middle of a radioactive desert with nothing to eat or drink for miles...

... you'd be well-advised to watch your back, cause I aim to go on living just as long as I can. Of course, I'll wait until we're down to the last of our supplies. I'll wait until we split the last of the food and water over the fire... and I'll do my best to make it quick. Smoke the meat... good ole fashioned Dunton-Style Jerky... and then find the nearest cactus and hope there's some water to be had.

After that, I'll make like a mad bastard for the Hub... have a drink to your memory... and sell whatever is left of the jerky to the vendors.


That being said... I'd prefer to have Brahmin Burgers... or even Rat...

... but I'll eat what(who?)ever the hell I have to in order to stay alive.