Posted on 06/04/2005 2:29:05 PM PDT by STARWISE
Charles R. McNabb was five months into a hunger strike — his 5-foot-9 frame withered to less than 100 pounds — when he was wheeled into the Airway Heights prison infirmary last year.
The prison medical staff wanted to insert a feeding tube. McNabb, convicted of arson, wanted to continue starving. He was remorseful, he had told jailers, for badly burning his stepdaughter.
(snip)
The Washington State Court of Appeals yesterday ruled that the Department of Corrections (DOC) was justified in force-feeding McNabb, setting a precedent for other state inmates who attempt hunger strikes.
The five-page ruling dismissed McNabb's claim that the feeding tube violated his state Constitutional right to privacy, including the right to decline medical treatment. "The right to decline force-feeding is not absolute because the state has an interest in protecting the sanctity of the lives of its citizens," wrote appellate judge Ken Kato for a unanimous three-judge appellate panel in Spokane.
There is a difference between the case of McNabb — who was otherwise healthy — and those in which a terminally ill patient declines treatment, according to the ruling.
(snip)
He had been charged with arson and assault for setting fire to his estranged wife's Spokane house. His 16-year-old stepdaughter was seriously burned in the fire. He slowly wasted away in the county jail while awaiting his July 2004 trial, dropping at least half of his 190 pounds.
A Spokane County judge granted a local hospital the authority to insert a feeding tube if his condition became life-threatening, but doctors disagreed over his health, and McNabb's strike continued.
He pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced to 14 years. DOC inserted a tube two days after his admission.
(Excerpt) Read more at archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
The irony SCREAMS: a criminal must not be allowed to be starved and dehydrated to death ..
"too bad Terri wasn't a felon!"
That's right folks, we are the property of the State.
It own's us and can keep us from damaging it's property.
So9
BTTT!
Yep, I gotta agree, common sense is unconstitutional in America.
What happens if it is a christian scientist that is doing the "hunger strike"?
His soul belongs to God, but his ass (and stomach) belong to the State.
SO9
Let there be no doubt, innocent or guilty, the State now owns us all.
Where were these people when Terry Schiavo was murdered???
Incredible.
Bump!
Yes, Navy Patriot.
You beat me to that point...I shouldn't have grabbed a snack between typing and hitting send. :-)
This decision is actually the very logical extension of the wrongheaded idea of putting "life-at-all-costs" before rights, or "humanity" before individuals.
The socialists and pro-lifers* must be quite happy with the state of affairs, but to those of us who think a person's life, including a fetus', is his own...it's quite sickening.
*I don't just mean anti-abortion folks, but those who advocate life over rights.
Trying to take away HER rights, too!
**************
Not to mention the fact that he clearly is choosing to starve himself, unlike Terri Schiavo.
That being said, I don't believe that we as a society should allow one of our members to commit suicide.
I don't have a problem with the state restricting the liberties of prisoners, including the liberty to kill oneself slowly.
lol
Going to send the SWAT Team to risk their lives grabbing a suicide in the act?
Going to put people who want to die in the position of having to chose 'Suicide By Cop'?
'Society' should interfere with peoples lives and deaths as little as possible.
SO9
I don't have a problem with it either, except for the monetary waste, if they can demonstrate that restriction is in the law or is in written rules, not just something that is a warden's brain bubble.
So9
Your comment and your tagline seem to be at war with each other.
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