Is it any worse to eat dead people than it is to kill them in the first place?

That’s the question on everyone’s lips, as it were, amid recent reports that Syrian military forces were roasting dead children on spits and then having them for dinner.

The news sent shockwaves through the White House, where President Obama had recently declared a “red line” on cannibalism. Would the President take unilateral action against Bashar Assad, to defend what Obama called a “longstanding international norm against consuming human flesh”? Or would he wait to get approval from Congress and the international community?...