Health Forum: Hunger Strikes and Physicians
A year after a high-profile report ordered by President Obama confirmed the continued force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay detention center, Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) faculty are sponsoring a forum Feb. 23 to discuss the legal, ethical and human rights implications of the practice, and to set an agenda for action to end what some critics consider inhumane treatment.
“We want to educate people about this practice, which has been conducted in secret -- and, as importantly, talk about what physicians and the public can do to try to end it before it becomes accepted American policy, ” said George Annas, professor and chairman of health law, bioethics & human rights at BUSPH, who has been an outspoken opponent of the force-feeding of hunger strikers for years.
Annas will be joined at the forum by Michael Grodin, MD, professor of health law, bioethics and human rights and professor of psychiatry at the BU School of Medicine; Sondra Crosby, MD, an internist at Boston Medical Center, associate professor of medicine and assistant professor of health law, bioethics & human rights who has visited Guantanamo and other U.S. prisons to conduct medical exams on hunger strikers at the request of their lawyers ; Caroline Apovian, MD, an associate professor of medicine who heads the nutrition center at Boston Medical Center; and Scott Allen, MD, a physician from Brown University who specializes in prison medicine. Crosby, Grodin and Apovian are co-authors of the leading medical article on caring for hunger strikers, which appeared in the journal JAMA in 2007.
The forum comes just over a year since President Obama promised to return the U.S. to the “moral high ground" in the war on terror by issuing three executive orders, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay prison be closed within a year, one to end torture, and another establishing an interagency task force to lead a systematic review of detention policies and procedures. Guantanamo remains open, and many critics believe force-feeding competent hunger strikers amounts to torture.
Grodin said the issue of force-feeding detainees is complex because some people view the feeding of a starving prisoner as a humanitarian act.
“This is more than just about hunger strikes – it’s about the rights of competent prisoners to refuse any treatment, including refusal of food as a form of protest or demand, and about the medical ethics of physicians who are called upon to order force-feeding,” Grodin said.
The year-old report commissioned by the Secretary of Defense at the President's direction – dubbed the “Walsh Report” after its chairman, Admiral Patrick Walsh – concluded that the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay complied with the Geneva Conventions, which bar “humiliating and degrading treatment,” but made some recommendations to allow prisoners more social and religious interaction. In the area of force-feeding, it concluded that conditions were “in compliance” with the Geneva Conventions and recommended that military personnel “continue safe and humane treatment of hunger strikers whose life or health is jeopardized by hunger striking.” Human rights’ advocates called the report a whitewash.
The forum will be held Tuesday, Feb. 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Hiebert Lounge, located on the 14th floor of the Boston University School of Medicine at 80 E. Concord Street. It is open to all students, faculty, staff and interested community members.
The forum is co-sponsored by the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights; Global Lawyers & Physicians; and the Health and Human Rights Caucus.
Background materials for the conference, including the Walsh report and the JAMA article, are posted here.
For more information contact Alicia Orta at the HLB&HR department (aorta@bu.edu)