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I know there have been questions on whether lab meat would be Kosher or not, halavi or besari...

I see another potential debate. According to http://culturedbeef.net/what-is-it/, "Cultured Beef is created by painlessly harvesting muscle cells from a living cow."

The seven laws include "The prohibition of eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive."

The obvious question is then whether "harvesting muscle cells from a living" animal is equivalent to "flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive" ?

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  • Ethically it's not the same issue... but then physically it kind of is the same. Interesting question. Also it's not a limb. Anyway, I think they might be able to produce the same effect from a slaughtered animal's cells?
    – Annelise
    Aug 7, 2013 at 12:57
  • Oh also, I read that the cells are cultured in other animal products, so either way I am almost sure that if such a thing would be allowed into the kosher classification, Jews still would need to have a supervised process rather than the mainstream one.
    – Annelise
    Aug 7, 2013 at 12:59

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While a Jew is only Chayav for Ever Min HaChai if he has consumed a Halachic Shiur (minimal amount for culpability), as the category of Shiurim does not extend to a non Jew, non-Jews are liable for Ever Min Hachai even for consuming only the smallest amount. (Sanhedrin 56a, 59b, Rashi; Chullin 102a,121b; Lev. 19:14; Pesachim 22b; Rambam, Melachim 9:10, 12.)

That said, the concept of Davar HaMaamid also doesn't apply to non-Jews. As such, it would seem to me that if the original tissue samples from the living animal are (knowingly?) physically present in the bite consumed by the non-Jew, he would indeed be liable, but if he is only eating cells which were subsequently grown as a derivative, he would be exempt.

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  • Does it mean anything that all of the cultured meat is derived directly from that small amount? I mean that both in the sense of something that may be prohibited actually being deliberately utilised as the starting point of the whole process, and also in the physical sense of the derived meat perhaps being part of the original meat in some ways.
    – Annelise
    Aug 8, 2013 at 2:37

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