AARON MATÉ: Well, Doctor, on the issue of force-feeding as a form of torture, can you explain the distinction between a prisoner choosing or willing to risk the end of their life by refusing food and committing suicide? GEORGE ANNAS: Sure. Thank you. Yes, I mean, I have actually spoken on this issue to medical groups for many years. And at the beginning, I found that many physicians said that, "Well, as long as you’re doing it to save someone’s life, if they’re—you know, they may be mentally ill or mentally compromised, that that’s what doctors do." And so, the first thing to know about hunger strikers is, we’re talking about competent hunger strikers, people who know what they’re doing, know the risks and benefits of what they’re doing, and are protesting their conditions. We’re not talking about someone who’s, again, mentally ill, kind of anorexic or other conditions. Secondly, there’s a long history of hunger strikers in the United States and in the world. It’s essentially the only thing that a prisoner can do, effective thing, to protest their conditions. And the reason that the U.S. government and other governments have come down so hard on hunger strikers is that it’s very effective. It really scares the prisoner—the people who are holding the prisoners. They don’t want—as President Obama said himself at a news conference two months ago, "I don’t want them to die." It’s not that they want to die. They don’t want to die. They’d be thrilled if they got the issues that they wanted—if they were released, for example, or at least got a hearing or got charges. That’s really all they’re asking for. And they’re not asking for death, but they’re willing to risk death to make their point. So they’re not suicidal. Even the U.S. military has stopped saying that these hunger strikers are suicidal. They admit they’re not. They say they’re not going to let them die, but that’s because, again, hunger striking is so effective, because people identify with that. We know what it is not to eat. None of us have not eaten for as long as the hunger strikers have eaten, but—but it’s a very effective way to show how serious you are about your issues.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:08:27 +0000
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