Hunger Strike
Definition
A refusal of food by a person with decision-making capacity, typically as a form of protest. The correctional nurse's ethical obligation is to support the patient's autonomous decision while ensuring the decision is informed and capacity is regularly assessed.
- Definition
- Refusal of food by a person with decision-making capacity
- Common context
- Protest within correctional settings
- Nursing obligation
- Support autonomous, informed decision
- Ongoing requirement
- Regular capacity assessment
Common questions
What happens if a hunger-striking patient's capacity declines during the strike?+
Correctional nursing ethics generally hold that once capacity is genuinely lost, the earlier autonomous refusal no longer straightforwardly applies, and the situation shifts toward emergency medical and ethical decision-making, often involving institutional and legal review rather than continued deference to the original refusal alone.
Why is force-feeding a hunger striker ethically contested?+
Major medical ethics bodies, including the World Medical Association's Malta Declaration, treat force-feeding a capacitated, informed refuser as a violation of patient autonomy and potentially of prohibitions on inhuman treatment, which puts correctional medical staff in tension with institutional pressure to intervene.
What does regular capacity assessment during a hunger strike actually involve?+
It means periodically and formally re-evaluating whether the patient still understands the nature and likely consequences of continued refusal, rather than assuming a single initial capacity assessment remains valid as physical and cognitive condition deteriorates over the course of the strike.
Related terms
- Clinical Independence
- The principle that healthcare decisions in custodial settings are made on clinical grounds alone, without interference from custody staff. The UN Nelson...
- Dual Loyalty
- The conflict between a health professional's clinical obligation to the patient and their employment obligations to an institution : particularly acute in...
- Equivalency of Care
- The principle that prisoners are entitled to healthcare equivalent in quality to that available in the general community. Recognised in the Nelson...
- Reception Health Screening
- The health assessment conducted when a person enters custody, typically within 24 hours of arrival. Covers physical health, mental health, substance withdrawal...
- UN Nelson Mandela Rules
- The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (revised 2015, named for Nelson Mandela), establishing baseline standards for prison...