Jacob M. AppelBioethicist and medical historian
Posted: November 16, 2009 10:48 PM
Beyond Guantanamo: Torture Thrives in Connecticut
Opponents of torture have spent the past seven years advocating for a halt to the brutal excesses of the "War on Terror" from the Bush administration's rejection of the Geneva Conventions for detainees in Afghanistan to the waterboarding of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Ironically, as progress is finally being made in the international struggle against torture, the state of Connecticut has chosen this moment to launch a radical, pro-torture initiative of its own. In the case of
Coleman v. Lantz, now awaiting a ruling by Superior Court Judge James T. Graham, the state's Department of Corrections has argued for the right to force feed a hunger-striking inmate in an excruciatingly painful manner -- although doing so has been condemned by the American Medical Association, the World Medical Association and the nation's leading medical ethicists.
The inmate at the center of the controversy is William B. Coleman, a British citizen convicted of sexually assaulting his wife in 2002 at a trial that has generated considerable controversy. He is currently serving an eight-year sentence at the Osborn Prison in Somers and is eligible for release in 2012. Coleman's guilt or innocence has been debated extensively elsewhere -- and, while the complex case raises many challenging questions regarding criminal justice, the factual dispute that led to his conviction is best left to the legal appeals process. From the prospective of a torture opponent, what matters is that on September 16, 2007, the man stopped eating solid foods. As a result, his weight dropped from 250 to 128 pounds.
Coleman's stated purpose in starving himself was to draw attention to perceived injustices within Connecticut's legal system. He was neither suicidal nor mentally ill -- and, even today, retains his full mental capabilities. On September 16, 2008, he raised the stakes of his protest by refusing liquids. Shortly afterward, the prison's medical director, Dr. Edward Blanchette, had Coleman strapped down and -- without sedation -- tried to force a feeding tube through his nose into his stomach. This first attempt failed. "Success" only came after the inmate was screaming in agony and sneezing up blood. Eventually, Coleman succumbed to this torture and agreed to ingest liquids once again. He is now fighting in court for the right to resume his hunger campaign.
One of the nation's preeminent bioethics scholars, Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania, testified on Coleman's behalf that the feeding of competent prisoners against their will -- even to save their lives -- violates the most basic tenets of the medical profession. Rational, competent adults have a fundamental right to reject medical care. Force-feeding prisoners is no different than forcibly transfusing Jehovah's Witnesses or providing unwanted chemotherapy to terminally-ill cancer patients. The World Medical Association's 1975 Declaration of Tokyo strictly prohibits physicians from engaging in such practices, which it describes as "contrary to the laws of humanity." The AMA has fully embraced this document. When the United States began force-feeding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, two hundred fifty prominent physicians signed an open letter to a leading British journal,
The Lancet, called for sanctions against the medical professionals involved in these nonconsensual interventions.
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-m-appel/beyond-guantanamo-torture_b_360082.html
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