Armin Meiwes, the German jailed for eight-and-a-half years for eating an acquaintance, advised others not to follow his example. But he is unlikely to be the last to sample human flesh.
In many countries, the consumption of human flesh is not itself a crime.
Perpetrators tend to be convicted on the basis of accompanying acts: Mr Meiwes, for example, was not charged with cannibalism, but with murder for "sexual satisfaction".
A number of high-profile cannibal cases have involved the eating of flesh in a sexual context.
Albert Fish, who has been called America's Bogeyman, raped, murdered and ate a number of children during the 1920s. He claimed to have experienced immense sexual pleasure as a result.
Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who murdered at least 53 people between 1978 and 1990, also indulged in cannibalism. His crimes were linked to sexual problems.
But what distinguishes Mr Meiwes' self-confessed sexual cannibalism from killers such as Fish and Chikatilo, or acts committed by peoples such as the Aztecs or the Congolese rebels, is the ostensibly consensual nature of his act.
Mr Meiwes met the man he was ultimately to eat, 43-year-old Bernd-Jurgen Brandes, in early 2001, after advertising on websites for "young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter".
Mr Meiwes told investigators he took Mr Brandes back to his home, where Mr Brandes agreed to have his penis cut off, which Mr Meiwes then flambeed and served up to eat together.
Mr Meiwes says he then killed Mr Brandes with his consent.
But the allegedly consensual nature of the act has done nothing to pacify German disgust.
Whether Mr Meiwes' victim was willing or not, eating another for anything less than necessity remains a taboo in the modern world.
-extracted from BBC news....
im hungry now..