Doctors at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp should refuse participation in the force-feeding of hunger strikers since such an activity is a political statement, not a medical condition argues three senior medical professors.
“Hunger striking is a peaceful political activity to protest
terms of detention or prison conditions; it is not a medical
condition, and the fact that hunger strikers have medical
problems that need attention and can worsen does not make hunger
striking itself a medical problem,” wrote Drs. George Annas,
Sondra Crosby and Leonard Glantz in the prestigious New England
Journal of Medicine.
Physicians stationed at Guantanamo Bay, the authors write, are
sacrificing their ethical obligations by permitting the military
to “use them and their medical skills for political
purposes.”
The article then mentioned the participation of military doctors
who are used to ‘monitor’ the torture of detainees.
“Force-feeding a competent person is not the practice of
medicine; it is aggravated assault,” the senior professors
wrote. “Using a physician to assault prisoners no more changes
the nature of the act than using physicians to ‘monitor’ torture
makes torture a medical procedure.”
“Military physicians are no more entitled to betray medical
ethics than military lawyers are to betray the Constitution or
military chaplains are to betray their religion,” they added.
Of the 166 detainees in Guantanamo, at least 104 of them are
participating in a hunger strike to protest their indefinite
detention without the benefit of a fair trial. Of the hunger
strikers, 43 have lost enough weight that military doctors are
feeding them through tubes inserted in their noses and down into
their stomachs, a military spokesman said.
The procedure has been described as very painful. Prisoners who
refuse are strapped into restraining chairs to immobilize them
during the process.
In order to combat what has been described as unethical treatment
of detainees, the professors from Boston University said
“individual physicians and professional groups should use
their political power to stop the force-feeding, primarily for
the prisoners' sake, but also for that of their colleagues.”
The medical community’s position on the issue, however, does not
flush with that of the military.
Navy Captain Robert Durand, a spokesman for Guantanamo, said the
tube-feeding procedure of detainees is court-approved and
medically sound.
"It is the policy of the Department of Defense to protect the
life and health of detainees by humane and appropriate clinical
means, and in accordance with all applicable law and policy,"
Durand said, as quoted by Reuters.
"The policy on treatment of hunger strikers is focused solely
on preserving the life and health of detainees in Department of
Defense custody, and is consistent with treatment that would be
provided for US military personnel under similar
circumstances."
The journal contributors refuted the US military’s position on
the issue, arguing that force-feeding hunger strikers is wrongly
connected to suicide prevention.
"Hunger strikers are not attempting to commit suicide. Rather,
they are willing to risk death if their demands are not met.
Their goal is not to die but to have perceived injustices
addressed," they wrote.
The authors offered their recommendations as to how military
physicians stationed at Guantanamo may preserve their ethical
standards in the face of military coercion.
“They should approach congressional leaders, petition the DoD
to rescind its 2006 instruction permitting force-feeding, and
state clearly that no military physician should ever be required
to violate medical ethics. We further believe that military
physicians should refuse to participate in any act that
unambiguously violates medical ethics,” they recommended.
The doctors reminded that the American Medical Association and
the World Medical Association, which represents the medical
affiliations of about 100 countries, are of the position that
force-feeding mentally competent adults is a violation of medical
ethics.
In April the American Medical Association wrote the secretary of
defense that “forced feeding of [competent] detainees violates
core ethical values of the medical profession.”
On May 23, President Barack Obama pledged to restart the
repatriation process for about 86 detainees at Guantanamo Bay who
were cleared of the charges brought against them. The process has
bogged down, however, as Congress continues to debate whether
releasing a portion of the detainees will present a security risk
for the United States.
Meanwhile, the ongoing hunger strike only serves to remind the
world of President Obama’s failed promise, made on the campaign
trail in 2008, to shutter the Guantanamo detention center, which
has been described by Human Rights Watch as “the Gulag of our
times.”
Robert Bridge is the author of the book, "Midnight
in the American Empire," which discusses the dangerous
consequences of excessive corporate power in the United
States.