Federal immigration authorities have a judge’s permission to force feed a Russian migrant who went on hunger strike in the Eloy Detention Center, but doctors can cite ethics if they decline to do the procedure.
A recent court order allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to force-feed Eugenii Glushchenko until he eats voluntarily, or is deported back to Russia.
Court documents said Glushchenko had lost so much weight he could die.
It’s unethical to force-feed a patient, if they’re competent, on a hunger strike for a political reason and don’t want to die, said Dr. Marc Stern, correctional physician and affiliate assistant professor at the school of public health at the University of Washington.
“Even if the government feels, and perhaps from their ethical standpoint, (it) has a responsibility to do it, there should not be a physician or nurse who participates in it,” Stern said.
Lawyers for Glushchenko declined to comment.
Glushchenko's lawyers wrote in court documents he went on a hunger strike to protest that the government kept his medical records and didn’t get him the right care.
An ICE spokesperson in Phoenix declined to comment.
