I have written before in support of Guantanamo authorities force feeding hunger striking inmates, once the fast gets to the point that strikers are in immediate jeopardy of harm. The bioethics and medical establishment call that a violation of autonomy and forced medical treatment. Baloney. Prisoners have limited autonomy and no prison administration should stand back and watch prisoners actively harm themselves.

Not only that, but it appears that some believe doctors should help the strikers strike through medical means! No way, says Wesley.

But there is another angle to prisoner hunger strikes I hadn’t considered–coercion. No, not the coercion of forced feeding, but to hunger strike–or else!

That seems to be a cogent concern in Federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson ordering prisoners force fed–and moreover, removing DNRs from prisoner medical charts. From the Guardian story:

Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver in charge of medical care in the prisons, said Monday’s request to invalidate the more recent do-not-resuscitate orders was not made on an emergency basis and that no one was force-fed on Monday as a result. “Inmates can deteriorate rather quickly when they have starved themselves for this long period of time so we wanted to make sure we had the order in place … for us to be able to save their lives,” Hayhoe said. Hayhoe said she had talked to two inmates at Corcoran state prison who refused food or medical care because they were afraid other prisoners would find out if they didn’t.

The leaders of this hunger strike are vicious murderers. Prisoners rightly fear that eating could be dangerous to their health. Henderson–who has ordered tens of thousands of felons released from California prisons due to overcrowding–is hardly a law and order hard liner.

To quote the old saw, the inmates should not run the asylum.