Wednesday, October 1, 2008
p0st fIvE::A Prisoner's Right: Force-Feeding A Starving Inmate Violates Medical Ethics
The article i read entitled: A Prisoner's Right: Force-Feeding A Starving Inmate Violates Medical Ethics, refers to William Coleman a 48 year old man serving an eight yer sentence for rape at the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers Connecticut. Somers has gone on a hunger strike claiming that he was unjustly convicted. Since his protest, Coleman has lost more than 100 pounds in the past year. Fearing for his life, prison officials received a court order which allowed them to force feed Coleman food and water intravenously. I believe that competent prisoners should not be forced fed against there own will. Not to mention that the use of intravenous needles should only be supervised under doctors and nurses and who is to know if that is the case in these prisons. All competent adults are allowed to deny medical treatment if they choose to, so Coleman should be allowed to refuse being force fed because it is his right.
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3 comments:
I agree, obviously the prisoner knows what he is doing, so they should just let him starve himself. It isn't the responsibility of the prison to make sure that everyone eats, especially if the food is offered and someone willingly refuses.
I agree as well. I don't see why they would force him to live when clearly they would rather him die. I guess they, instead of allowing him to take the easy route and starve himself, would find great joy in making him suffer and spend his life incarcerated. People and their greedy need to control the lives of others--makes me sick. Good article!
I definitely do not believe that this guy should have been force fed. And good point about the need for a doctor's presence when dealing with intravenous procedures and such. I would hope they had a medical professional on hand.
Posted by Brad Elmore
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