The hunger strike in prison: bioethical and medico-legal insights arising from a recent opinion of the Italian national bioethics committee.

Autor: De Micco F; Research Unit of Bioethics and Humanities, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Roma, 00128, Italy.; Department of Clinical Affair, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico, Roma, 00128, Italy., Tambone V; Research Unit of Bioethics and Humanities, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Roma, 00128, Italy., De Vito R; Research Unit of Bioethics and Humanities, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Roma, 00128, Italy., Cingolani M; Department of Law, University of Macerata, Macerata, 62100, Italy., Scendoni R; Department of Law, University of Macerata, Macerata, 62100, Italy. r.scendoni@unimc.it.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Medicine, health care, and philosophy [Med Health Care Philos] 2024 Sep; Vol. 27 (3), pp. 479-486. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jun 12.
DOI: 10.1007/s11019-024-10215-w
Abstrakt: This contribution addresses some bioethical and medico-legal issues of the opinion formulated by the Italian National Bioethics Committee (CNB) in response to the dilemma between the State's duty to protect the life and health of the prisoner entrusted to its care and the prisoner's right to exercise his freedom of expression. The prisoner hunger strike is a form of protest frequently encountered in prison and it is a form of communication but also a language used by the prisoner in order to provoke changes in the prison condition. There are no rules in the prison regulations, nor in the laws governing the legal status of prisoners, that allow the conscious will of the capable and informed subject to be opposed and forced nutrition to be carried out. However, this can in no manner make therapeutic abandonment legitimate: the medical doctor should promote every action to support the patient. In the recent opinion formulated by the CNB it was remarked how self-determination is a central concept in human rights and refers to an individual's ability to make autonomous and free decisions about his or her life and body.
(© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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