Prior to 1931 , '' The New York Times '' reporter William Buehler Seabrook , in the interests of research , obtained from a hospital intern at the Sorbonne a chunk of human meat from the body of a healthy human killed in an accident , then cooked and ate it . He reported , " It was like good , fully developed veal , not young , but not yet beef . It was very definitely like that , and it was not like any other meat I had ever tasted . It was so nearly like good , fully developed veal that I think no person with a palate of ordinary , normal sensitiveness could distinguish it from veal . It was mild , good meat with no other sharply defined or highly characteristic taste such as for instance , goat , high game , and pork have . The steak was slightly tougher than prime veal , a little stringy , but not too tough or stringy to be agreeably edible . The roast , from which I cut and ate a central slice , was tender , and in color , texture , smell as well as taste , strengthened my certainty that of all the meats we habitually know , veal is the one meat to which this meat is accurately comparable . " When Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed into the Andes on October 13 , 1972 , the survivors resorted to eating the deceased during their 72 days in the mountains . Their story was later recounted in the books '' Alive : The Story of the Andes Survivors '' ( 1974 ) and '' Miracle in the Andes : 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home '' ( 2006 ) , as well as the film '' Alive '' ( 1993 ) , by Frank Marshall , and the documentaries '' Alive : 20 Years Later '' ( 1993 ) and '' Stranded : I 've Come from a Plane that Crashed in the Mountains '' ( 2008 )
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
Human cannibalism