Detainees and Prisoners of War
International humanitarian law requires equal care for detainees. Following disclosures of abuse at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, multinational forces sought to provide detainees with relatively high standards of care. One result was to cause resentment among host-nation allies who suffered inferior care at local facilities. Abu Ghraib also triggered an intense public debate about the role of medical professionals in enhanced interrogation. Ultimately, the American government declined to prosecute service personnel because enhanced interrogation was not manifestly unlawful. There were, therefore, no grounds for any military officer, or any person of ordinary sense and understanding, to refuse orders to participate in interrogation sessions. Force feeding animates a similar debate about detainee rights. Opposition to force feeding invokes patient self-determination. Arguments supporting force feeding question an inmate’s ability to freely refuse food, affirm the state’s duty to preserve life, and recognize that captured combatants forfeit their right to strike.