Force-feeding
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Force-feeding is the practice of feeding someone against his or her will.
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[edit] Force-feeding of humans
Force-feeding should not be confused with other forms of enteral feeding, where a patient is intubated through the nose or mouth and fed because he or she is incapable of swallowing due to some medical condition, rather than because he or she refuses to eat.
[edit] Countering (self-)starvation
In medical institutions, force-feeding is done to mentally ill people who refuse to eat either because of their delusions, because they suffer from a loss of appetite, or because they want to commit suicide, or as a form of protest.
Force-feeding of humans is often done to prisoners, to prevent them from dying as part of a hunger strike. This happened in the case of the suffragettes and "Special Category Status" (paramilitary) prisoners in Northern Ireland, and is frequently [1] [2] used in the sui generis U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, prompting in March 2006 an [3] open letter by 250 doctors from 7 Western countries in The Lancet, warning the participation of any MD is contrary to the rules of the World Medical Association. Force-feeding is often categorised as torture, as it may be extremely painful and result in severe bleeding and spreading of various diseases via the exchanged blood and mucus, especially when conducted with dirty equipment on a prison population. [4]
Force-feeding of humans was a common practice in the USSR. A brief, first account experience of a force-feeding session given by Vladimir Bukovsky describes the procedure in detail: "The feeding pipe was thick, thicker than my nostril, and would not go in. Blood came gushing out of my nose and tears down my cheeks, but they kept pushing until the cartilages cracked. I guess I would have screamed if I could, but I could not with the pipe in my throat. I could breathe neither in nor out at first; I wheezed like a drowning man - my lungs felt ready to burst. The doctor also seemed ready to burst into tears, but she kept shoving the pipe farther and farther down. Only when it reached my stomach could I resume breathing, carefully. Then she poured some slop through a funnel into the pipe that would choke me if it came back up. They held me down for another half-hour so that the liquid was absorbed by my stomach and could not be vomited back, and then began to pull the pipe out bit by bit." [5] Large feeding pipes are traditionally used on hunger striking prisoners [6], for example in Guantanamo Bay [7] whereas thin pipes are preferred in hospitals.
[edit] Coercive and torturous use
Force-feeding of pernicious substances may be used as a form of torture and/or physical punishment. Some practitioners of Falun Gong in the People's Republic of China allege being force-fed with harmful substances such as boiling water, concentrated salt solutions, hard alcohol and human excrement. While in prison in northern Bosnia in 1996, some Serbian prisoners have described being forced to eat paper and soap.
Sometimes it has been alleged that prisoners are forced to eat foods forbidden by their religion. The Washington Post has reported that Islamic prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison under the US-led coalition described in sworn statements having been forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, both of which are strictly forbidden in Islam. [8] Other prisoners described being forced to eat from toilets.
There are also cases in which force-feeding of harmful substances has been used by parents as a form of child abuse.
[edit] Other purposes
In BDSM, force-feeding is sometimes practised as a sexual fetish, where the participants are in fact only pretending that it happens against the will of the one being fed.
In the past, force-feeding has also been a practice in some Middle Eastern and North African countries where fatness was considered a marriage asset in women; culturally, voluptuous figures were perceived as indicators of wealth, as in feudal times the Islamic elite had its harem literally lying around, pampered by black slaves. In this tradition, some girls are forced by their mothers or grandmothers to overeat, often accompanied by physical punishment (e.g. pressing a finger between two pieces of wood). The intended result is a rapid onset of obesity, and the practice may start at a young age and continue for years. This is still the paradoxal tradition in the rather undernourished Sahel country Mauritania, where it induces major health risks in the female population; some of the younger generation claim no longer to insist on voluptuous brides, but the time-honored beauty norm remains part of the culture.
[edit] Force-feeding of animals
Force-feeding is also known as gavage, from a French word meaning "to gorge". This term specifically refers to force-feeding of geese and young cattle in order to fatten their livers in the production of foie gras and veal respectively. Gavage can also refer to the practice of administering liquids (such as medicines) to laboratory animals via a tube or syringe.
- See Foie Gras for more on production methods.
Force-feeding of birds is practiced mostly on geese or male Mulard ducks, a Muscovy/Pekin hybrid. Preparation for gavage usually begins 4-5 months before slaughter. For geese, after an initial free-range period and treatment to assist in esophagus dilation (eating grass, for example), the force-feeding commences. Gavage is performed 2—4 times a day for 2-5 weeks, depending on the size of the fowl, using a funnel attached to a slim metal or plastic feeding tube inserted into the bird's throat to deposit the food into the storage area in the esophagus. A grain mash, usually maize mixed with fats and vitamin supplements, is the feed of choice. Waterfowl are suited to the tube method due to a nonexistant gag-reflex and extremely flexible esophagi, unlike other fowl such as chickens. These migratory waterfowl are also said to be ideal for gavage because of their natural ability to gain large amounts of weight in short periods of time before cold seasons. For this reason, gavage is usually a "finishing" stage before the bird is set for slaughter, for if left to its own devices after finishing, the bird will quickly return to its normal weight. The result of this practice is a severely enlarged, especially fatty liver, when if especially exaggerated is the liver disease hepatic lipidosis. The liver may swell up to 12 times its normal size (up to three pounds). While the livers are the coveted portions of these birds, the unctuous flesh of fattened geese and ducks as well as their feathers find a market. Due to protests from animal-welfare groups against the method of obtaining these enlarged livers, gavage is outlawed in United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Israel, as well as in some, but not all, USA states. The USA's most recent ban on foie gras was in Chicago, Illinois. [9] [10] [11] .
Domestic cats sometimes lose their appetite. However, fasting is dangerous for cats because it can cause hepatic lipidosis. For this reason, in some instances cats may need to be force-fed. [12]
[edit] Sources
- BBC 1 TV program "Force fed" November 2, 2005
- BBC News report "U.N. concern at Guantanamo feeding" [13]
- News reports of U.S. force-feeding of Guantanamo prisoners by U.N. special rapporteur on torture [14],[15]
