Armin Meiwes: Is there such a thing as consensual cannibalism?
There are just some things that we don’t just know in our hearts and minds, but in our very DNA as a fact of science. Things like walking on two feet, like breathing through our lungs, and how the Star Wars prequels are shit, no matter how many memes came from them.
However, there’s arguably nothing we know in our very bone marrow more than the simple fact that we are the top of the food chain. We are the apex predator of the world, and there’s nothing that regularly feeds on us, no matter how many Jaws movies have told us otherwise. After all, why do you think that throughout human history, we’ve created so many monsters that eat humans for sustenance? It’s a constant source of anxiety that one day, we might just be sustenance for other entities.
It takes on an entirely different feeling of wrongness when it’s people eating other people. Cannibalism is the kind of taboo that even the animal kingdom only invokes in times of desperation, at least for the most part. It’s seen as the last vestige of humanity, an unforgivable act that fundamentally changes you, even if it’s a last-ditch effort to stave off death. Yet, it’s also a particularly human trait to push the boundaries of what is acceptable, so more than a few people over time have asked a particularly gross question.
Can you consensually consume the flesh of another human being?
This was a question posed to a German court in 2003, when the trial of Armin Meiwes began. Whichever way you want to put it, Meiwes was a killer and a cannibal. He had committed an act that is truly horrifying, cooking and eating a 43-year-old Berlin engineer named Bernd Brandes and completely owned up to the act in court. However, there was a fork in the road that absolutely no one saw coming. Meiwes maintained that he did so with Brandes’ knowing consent.
Now, this sounds ridiculous. A man who’d taken leave of his senses and kidnapped, murdered, mutilated and unwilling victim because “their eyes were asking for it” or some nonsense like that. Except Meiwes had planned for this. There was incontrovertible proof that Brandes had knowingly, willingly and with full soundness of mind, wanted Meiwes to commit cannibalism on him. This proof was the fact that Meiwes had videotaped the whole thing.
Which is honestly just as disturbing, at least to me. The four-hour tape showed the whole process. From Meiwes putting a request online for a “young well-built man, who wanted to be eaten”, to Brandes accepting the request, travelling to his home in Rotenburg and fulfilling it. Yes, this tape was shown in court. Every part of it, from the two laughing and joking about what they were going to do, with Brandes clearly as into this promise of cannibalism as Meiwes was.
Then, the main course. As it were. To begin with, Brandes and Meiwes retreated to Meiwes’ farmhouse, where Brandes downed 20 sleeping tablets and half a bottle of schnapps. Meiwes proceeded to remove Brandes’ penis with a meat cleaver, before frying it in oil, eating some of it and attempting to feed Brandes a part of it himself. By this point, the sleeping tablets were kicking in. I really can’t stress enough how this act of cannibalism was going exactly how Brandes wanted it to go.
Meiwes helped Brandes inside, and the older man got into a bath that Meiwes had prepared earlier. Once he was unconscious (Meiwes passed the time by reading a Star Trek novel), Meiwes kissed Brandes, then stabbed him in the throat, killing him. He then chopped him into pieces, stored him in his freezer and buried his skull in the garden. Over the next few weeks, Meiwes lived off of Brandes’ remains, consuming over 20kg of human meat until the police contacted Meiwes, searching for Brandes.
At first, Meiwes was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison. However, he was retried three years later, the reason being that he was acting out of sexual gratification, and thus, he would still be a clear and present danger to others once out of prison. He was charged with murder this time and sentenced to life in prison.
Armin Meiwes has since renounced his behaviour so much that today, he’s a vegetarian.