Bring on Dr. Kervorkian!
I thought doctors worked to preserve life, silly me. Nice to see they’re on board with the war on terror, defending the right of terrorists to starve themselves to death:
Military doctors violate medical ethics when they approve the force-feeding of hunger strikers at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, according to a commentary in a prestigious medical journal.
The doctors should attempt to prevent force-feeding by refusing to participate, the commentary’s three authors write in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
“In medicine, you can’t force treatment on a person who doesn’t give their voluntary informed consent,” said Dr. Sondra Crosby of Boston University, one of the authors. “A military physician needs to be a physician first and a military officer second, in my opinion.”
…
Department of Defense spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said force-feeding is done “in a humane and compassionate manner,” using a method that is consistent with procedures used in U.S. federal prisons.
Have I missed the uproar over the existing policy of force-feeding federal prisoners? I’ll admit I’m conflicted. If the prisoners want to take their own lives, give them a pistol and a glass of whiskey, and let them be done with it. But to call the humane force feeding of prisoners—in order to keep them alive—a violation of medical ehtics is just asinine.