Ethics Dilemmas in Managing Hunger Strikes

There is no agreement on how to manage hunger strikers. The health professionals called to intervene in a hunger strike are faced with a dilemma: commit themselves to good order and discipline or comply with best practices for providing healthcare. Handling cases of hunger strikers confronts practitioners with the ethics dilemma of managing apparent intentional behavior that carries serious morbidity or mortality, but recognizing that hunger striking is a military and political tactic, and not a medical condition. The study by Reeves, et. al published in the Journal enhances our understanding of the motives and psychology of hunger strikers. Their analysis indicates that improving communication with custody administration and mitigating unnecessarily aversive housing environments can likely reduce the incidence of hunger strikes.