Let's discuss the issue of anthropophagy.

Anthropophagy is defined as "the eating of human flesh; cannibalism." The survivors of the crash of the Fairchild in the Andes succumbed to anthropophagy as a necessity. Had they not eaten the bodies of the already dead, they would have died weeks before they were rescued. The Roman-Catholic church, of which all of the passengers were members, does not consider anthropophagy in extremis a sin. The young men did not kill any of their fellow passengers, they were not guilty of any crime. They had two choices: eat the bodies of the dead in order to survive, or not. If they took the latter course, they all would have died. As Dr. Valeta, the father of Carlos Valeta, one of the boys who did not survive, put it, "We are glad, what is more, that there were forty-five of them, because this helped at least sixteen return. I'd like to say, furthermore, that I knew from the very first moment what has been confirmed today. As a doctor I understood at once that no one could have survived in such a place and under such conditions without resort to courageous decisions. Now that I have confirmation of what has happened I repeat: Thank God that the forty-five were there, for sixteen homes have regained their children." Piers Paul Read sums it up in one sentence: "If all forty-five had survived the accident and avalanche, all forty-five would now be dead."

What made me proud of the human race was this: only once was the possibility of murder mentioned, and that was by a story-hungry reporter who suggested that the avalanche was made up by the stronger boys as a cover-up for murdering the weaker ones. None of the parents or survivors ever suggested that they would have begun murdering each other for food had supplies run out, which they nearly had towards the end. In adventure novels about ship wrecks and the like, people always start killing each other for food. In reading Alive, I have new faith in humanity that even under extreme circumstances, people don't just resort to murder. In fact, many people won't even consider it.