You Are What You Eat

Cannibalism is pretty common in the society in The Road, because people are desperate and have few other options. Here's one example.  At one point the man sees two men and a pregnant woman pass on the road. A while later the man and the boy see smoke from a fire, so they go to investigate.  When they get there there's no one there because the people may have seen that the man had a gun.  All that's left is something black and roasted on a spit over the fire.  The boy suddenly starts bawling, and the man realizes that the object on the spit is a human infant.  They quickly leave in horror.  When I first read this I assumed that the woman had a baby and they killed it and ate it.  Looking back on this I realized it's also possible that it was a stillborn, especially considering how weak the woman was.  In that case, even though it's extremely gruesome, I think it's okay to eat the child.  We can't even imagine a situation like theirs, and it wouldn't have done them any good to bury it, even though it's easy to say it's the right thing to do.  If the child was born alive, it would be wrong to eat it, especially because it could be one of humanity's few chances of survival.  When it comes down to it though, it seems people will do anything to survive.