The Federal Court has insisted that doctors must force feed hunger-striking prisoners if ordered to do so by the authorities.
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On Monday, the court published the reasoning behind its decision in the case of marijuana farmer Bernard Rappaz. In late August the court ruled that the authorities had the right to order force feeding to prevent permanent health damage or death.
While the court has found that the law is more important than medical ethics, doctors strongly disapprove of feeding a patient against his will.
Various Swiss doctors’ associations have stated that force feeding violates the rights of patients – therefore violating the basic ethics of medicine.
Rappaz is serving a prison term of five years and eight months for cannabis dealing and other offences. He was in hospital after a hunger strike this summer and was later placed under house arrest before an appeal at the Federal Court was rejected.
He was subsequently returned to prison, but had to be hospitalised again in mid-October as a result of hypoglycemia.
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Cannabis farmer Rappaz is taken to hospital
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A friend, Boris Ryser, said Rappaz had been suffering from hypoglycemia, the medical term for a state produced by a lower than normal level of blood glucose. He added that Rappaz from the southwestern canton of Valais, had received glucose injections. “This does not mean that he has been force fed,” Ryser added. The Federal…
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Rappaz, from canton Valais, was taken back to jail after an appeal lodged at the Federal Tribunal in Lausanne was turned down. The appeal asked for suspension of a prison term of five years and eight months handed down by Valais authorities until they considered a request for pardon. Rappaz’ lawyer said on Monday there…
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Bernard Rappaz is now in Bern’s Insel hospital and doctors have been told by Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten, a member of the Valais government who is responsible for the dossier, to force-feed him to keep him alive. She made the decision after consultation with the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne, which is to consider an appeal by…
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Swiss tobacco production is on the decline; only about 400 farmers still grow this labour-intensive crop. Most of them are in the Broye Valley stretching across cantons Vaud and Fribourg. Their production covers only a small share of the tobacco consumed in Switzerland. (Text and images, Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch)
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