Force-feeding — Guantanamo’s shame

When the restraint chairs were first introduced to Guantanamo in December 2005, the force-feeding process was reportedly especially punitive. Several detainees said that guards kept them in a restraint chair for hours after the tube feeding ended — sometimes for as long as six hours. The military says that the restraint chairs prevent assaults on U.S. personnel, but a detainee whose condition has deteriorated such that force-feeding is medically necessary to sustain life is unlikely to have the physical ability to commit assault.

At least two detainees were force-fed in the chair twice a day for close to four years. By 2009, the process was less prolonged and brutal, but the restraint chair was still used for every feeding regardless of a detainee’s compliance, according to an independent physician who visited Guantanamo and examined detainees. She found that the force-feeding procedure caused physical pain and psychological harm that in one case became full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder.

Another detainee, Tariq Ba Awdah, has told lawyers that he has been force-fed for six years, and he is still on a hunger strike. Doctors have a duty to preserve life, but they also have a duty to respect patients’ autonomy and not to subordinate their medical judgment to prison authorities. As the World Medical Assn.’s Declaration of Malta states: “Fostering trust between physicians and hunger strikers is often the key to achieving a resolution that both respects the rights of the hunger strikers and minimizes harm to them.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *