Calls for the doctors who force-feed hunger-striking prisoners at Guant\u00e1namo Bay to refuse to perform the practice on ethical grounds have got nowhere, a spokesman for the prison said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
No doctors, nurses or corpsman had balked at feeding the prisoners or even voiced a concern about the military’s policy of using what’s known as enteral feeding to prevent any of the hunger strikers starving to death, said Navy Captain Robert Durand.<\/p>\n
“They signed up to carry out lawful orders,” Durand said. “This is a lawful order.”<\/p>\n
The hunger strike at the US base in Cuba is nearing a fourth month amid increasing pressure on the defence department to reconsider its response to the protest.<\/p>\n
Officials said 104 of the 166 prisoners were on hunger strike as of Thursday in a protest against their indefinite detention. Up to 44 are strapped down each day and force-fed liquid nutrients through a nasal tube.<\/p>\n
“We do it to preserve life,” Durand said, denying the assertions from prisoners that the procedure is painful.<\/p>\n