A few years ago, I got chatting to a couple who owned a business in New Zealand – they were undertakers. When I mentioned my doctoral thesis, the thin red line between cannibalism and carnivorism, they told me they often received calls and emails seeking body parts. I doubted the story at the time – after all, cannibalism was a convenient story in the early days of British colonialism, and while Maoris have agreed it happened occasionally, it seemed unlikely to be a regular commercial proposition in the twenty-first century.

But the story lives on. In November 2025, The New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal found that a former mortuary technician had posted comments to social media “promoting cannibalism” and boasted that he could “literally steal an entire heart”.

The man – who cannot be named for legal reasons – also shared an image online of a dissected human skull with a handwritten message inside: “We’re inside your head”.

The Tribunal ruled that this constitutes professional misconduct, stating that he:

“engaged in conversations … promoting cannibalism and eating post mortem tissue”

Their ruling noted the man identified himself online as someone who worked in forensic pathology and/or was involved in post-mortems.

The man also engaged in online conversations about rape and sexualising children, his own alleged drug use and ways of making explosives, offering to show others how to make explosives.

One online conversation saw the man claim:

“When we have burn victims…. They smell so good sometimes”

In another online discussion about cannibalism, he discussed the provision of human (post-mortem) tissue to others.

“When you’re working here. We got enough [muscle] to go around. Save your muscle”

He also boasted about being able to access body parts.

“I mean. It’s not actually that hard. I could literally steal an entire heart. It all just goes back into a bag we stitch back inside them not like anyone checks it”

He told one online user he could “sneak a little heart slice next week. It’ll be me conveying my love to you. Sending some actual human heart.”

The man also claimed that he’d decapitated a corpse “to boil her head”.

The Tribunal ruling noted the man “accepts that his rhetoric, comments and information about post-mortems, post-mortem procedures, and dissections that he posted and/or circulated in his social media posts was inappropriate and that his conduct fell below the expected ethical and professional standards that apply to members of his profession”.

The Tribunal also noted the “charge of professional misconduct is established”.

No charges have been laid regarding the man actually carrying out any of these acts. What happened to free speech and entrepreneurialism in New Zealand?