Monday, Jan 09, 2006
Opinion - News Analysis
Scandal of force-fed prisoners in Guantanamo
David Rose
Hunger strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits camp doctor.
NEW DETAILS have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive. They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by the camp's chief doctor. "Experience teaches us" that such symptoms must be expected "whenever nasogastric tubes are used," says the affidavit of John S. Edmondson, commander of Guantanamo's hospital. The procedure - now standard practice at Guantanamo - "requires that a foreign body be inserted into the body and, ideally, remain in it." But staff always use a lubricant, and "a nasogastric tube is never inserted and moved up and down. It is inserted down into the stomach slowly and directly, and it would be impossible to insert the wrong end of the tube." Medical personnel do not insert nasogastric tubes in a manner "intentionally designed to inflict pain."
It is painful, Capt. Edmonson admits. Although "non-narcotic pain relievers such as ibuprofen are usually sufficient, sometimes stronger drugs," including opiates such as morphine, have had to be administered.
Thick, 4.8 mm diameter tubes tried previously to allow quicker feeding, so permitting guards to keep prisoners in their cells for more hours each day, have been abandoned, the affidavit says. The new 3 mm tubes are "soft and flexible."
The London solicitors Allen and Overy, who represent some of the hunger strikers, have lodged a court action to be heard next week in California, where Capt. Edmondson is registered to practice. Although some prisoners have had to be tied down while being force-fed, "only one patient" has had to be immobilised with a six-point restraint, and "only one" passed out.
"In less than 10 cases have trained medical personnel had to use four-point restraint in order to achieve insertion." Capt. Edmondson claims the actual feeding is voluntary. During Ramadan, tube-feeding takes place before dawn.
Article 5 of the 1975 World Medical Association Tokyo Declaration, which U.S. doctors are legally bound to observe through their membership of the American Medical Association, states that doctors must not undertake force-feeding under any circumstances.
David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at Queen Elizabeth's hospital in Birmingham, is co-ordinating opposition to the Guantanamo doctors' actions from the international medical community.
"If I were to do what Edmondson describes in his statement, I would be referred to the General Medical Council and charged with assault," he said.
- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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