Ethical Dilemma

ETHICAL DILEMMA
PAMELA ZOLINE WRITES in her remarkable short story "The Heat Death of the Universe": "The nakedness of children is so much more absolute than that of the mature"; and "All well-fed children appear edible."
When Deborah Carney first read those words, she said to herself, "How true!"
Over the next several weeks she turned the passage over and over in her mind, looking at each one of her own five children, especially the youngest, the infant, six months old and aging slowly-–slowly maturing.
One day, changing the diaper, cleaning the smooth, soft, plump body of the baby, she bent down, kissing the rump. Delicately, as was appropriate, and just as a test, she then bit into the flesh. With a surprisingly little amount of difficulty, her teeth went into and through the soft, tender skin, much like the clay she remembered biting through as a child--just a slight resistence, and then freedom. Break on through. Connection. Teeth met teeth. Of course, the small infant responded--cried out--and screamed. But Deborah was able to cover its mouth and, at the same time, hold down the chubby little legs of her squirming, resisting child. She took another bite. And another. Good. Good and salty. And then another.
Almost before she knew it, she had nearly devoured the entire thing; and it was absolutely, absolutely delicious. But afterwards she wondered, while cleaning up, how she would ever be able to explain the incident to her husband and the older children--or even if she would. It was, she would later tell her defense attorney, an ethical dilemma.