Force Feeding Suspects

[Drusilla]

Is the force feeding of prisoners ever acceptable?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/politics/09gitmo.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1139487434-esOJ6EfADkVq/RfoZWt2Ug

This story reminds me how such cruel treatment won support for the Suffragettes, but I suspect the American intention is to prevent a cult of martyrs akin to that of Bobby Sands and IRA members during the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland.

[noxlumos]

Unfortuneately the Americans think they are God and the more they try to put down unrest with their hamfisted brutality the more they will whip up resentment across the world. They are making a rod for their own backs with this as all they are doing by this brutal treatment is making living martyrs instead of dead ones.Time they charged people there with some crime or released them into the custody of the UN so that someone independant can decide if they have actually done anything wrong or not. There are children in that place, how can you trust the judgement of someone who incarcerates a child under such circumstances and then can't even find sufficient evidence to charge them with anything.

Force feedling of prisoners is NEVER acceptable, a person's life is their own and should be sacrosanct.

[Peter Pedant]

There is quite alot of discussion about this in the medical press Droo.

DH Nichol of Cambridge has just had a letter with 210 signatories (UK) just rejected by the New England Journal after they carried an article about this in Jan 2006.

The doctors' role in this is therefore under active scrutiny -and so it should be.

[Goodsoulette]

If an anorexic steps in and says she is never going to eat, we section them and force feed them.

Is there a difference??

[noxlumos]

Er,yeah there is a huge difference (but my personal belief is we should not do that either).

A prisoner who makes the decision to starve himself is usually doing so to make a point to the outside world. He is not mentally impaired, or suffereing from a pychological illness, he is trying to make a point which will cost him his life and will not have been taken lightly.It may be about politics or it may be a protest against them being held without trial and in some cases without even being aware of exactly what it is they are suspected of and most importantly it is their life, not anyone else's and we should respect their decision to do what they wish with it.

[Drusilla]

Even the force feeding of anorexics is controversial and in 1997 guidance was given to doctors in England allowing the force feeding of anorexics over the age of 18, but only after they have been deemed incapable of making a rational decision regarding their treatment. I think it would be very difficult to force feed a prisoner in the UK who had made a conscious decision to starve himself for a cause.

[chaosfactor]

if they wanna die let them we havent in the past, just let them commit sucide the world would be a better place!

Any way as the terroist there didn't follow the genva convetion they have no legal right under it! list of offences=

* no distuginshing uniform from a civilian

* not under the permission of the goverment they fight for (hences insurgant) i could go on so the americans can do wht ever they like!

[noxlumos]

It might be worth remembering chaosfactor that none of these people have been charged or found guilty of anything yet and that some of them are kids.For sure if what are essentially at the moment political prisoners choose to go on hunger strike to protest at the appalling state of affairs in Guantanamo Bay then they should not be force fed, but it's naieve of you in the extreme to assume all of those people are guilty.

[veritymoon]

a person with anorexia has a mental illness so its completely different to someone who is doing it for political reasons or to prove innocence etc

[metagirl]

No - what the American military is doing is sickening. They are only doing it for political reasons and I could only imagine the degradation these people are having to go through. It is just so unacceptable not unlike many things the Bush administration is up to, i/e illegal wire tapping, transporting prisoners to countries that condone torture, increasing tax cuts for the rich while the poor in America see their food stamps and very few subsidies vanish, pushing forward legislation to open up their national parks to commercial development, bankrupting social security so millions of Americans will experience their elder years in abject poverty, investing trillions in a black hole called Iraq while isolating America further from the rest of the world with its reactionary rhetoric....etc..etc..

Typical Bush doctrine. Why isn't this man impeached?