Should this woman be force fed?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18464254

This is a difficult one, but I suspect if she is determined to die she will find another way of doing it.

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

It's so sad when people self-destruct like this. I'm not sure about the force feeding.

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

If her mind has been affected by her anorexia, then she is not fit to say if she wants to die, or not. I think she should be force fed as she may live to be thankful.

It's a dreadful illness and many have died because of it. I blame all the stick thin so-called models and designers!

Many thanks for the link.

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

This is a tough one but I think her wishes should be respected, I mean where do you draw the line?

It could be argued that as anorexia is a mental illness anyway, rather than a physical one, then anorexics are not capable of making any decisions for themselves about anything. And if that is true, then how about other groups that have self abusive obsessions such as the obese, or smokers, or drinkers, or self harmers, or old or ill people that want to sign a DNR.? Could we argue that anyone who wants to end their life must be mad? Who can judge that and why should they be allowed to?

We are all masters of our own destiny and just because we sometimes don’t hold the same opinion or standards as others, that doesn’t make us wrong to make decisions that may go against the norm, but that we consider to be in our own interest.

With the case of this poor girl you can keep her alive by force feeding her against her will, but that won’t cure her illness or break her will…

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

Good post, plantman.

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

I really wouldn't know how to make a decision on this Willow, it's very sad, I'm glad I wasn't the judge.

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

So am I, a situation where you are damned if you do, and damned if you don't!

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I don't think your comparisons to obese, smokers etc is very valid. Those who choose to abuse their own bodies, in my opinion, cannot be equated with those who have such a distorted body image that they cannot fully understand that they are damaging themselves.

It's an incredibly tough question, I think all the more so as she has had anorexia for so long. But anorexia IS a severe form of mental illness, and I think I would have to question this woman's capacity to make such a decision. Clearly, if she has suffered with anorexia for so long she must have had periods of being reasonably well, otherwise she would have died long ago.

I think the majority of people suffering from anorexia are articulate as she is described. But being articulate does not exclude being mentally incapacitated enough to be unable to logically assess a situation.

While force feeding her MAY not cure her illness or break her will, I don't think you can categorically say so. There could still be a chance that improving her physical health could cure the mental health issues, albeit a small chance.

Very, very sad and my heart goes out to her family.

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

A fairly straight-forward decision. Since she has voluntarily refused to eat, force-feeding her is tantamount to an assault on her person. Therefore they should not attempt to force-feed her, look what happened to many of the suffragettes who were force-fed in prison prior to WW1.

Re: Should this woman be force fed?

It's not that clear-cut. We cannot say that she has voluntarily refused to eat as we do not know the state of her mental health. The Mental Health Act allows sectioning for treatment of patients who are at risk of harm to themselves or others, but this is not considered assault. I think you are over-simplifying it, UJ.