[url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/california-force-feeding_n_3784899.html]Article[/url] [quote]California prison officials won a court order Monday saying they could force-feed dozens of inmates who have been on a hunger strike for six weeks over solitary confinement conditions. State prison officials have struggled to deal with a hunger strike that started last month and, at its height, involved thousands of inmates. There are 45 inmates who have refused anything more than water, vitamins and electrolytes since July 8 to protest the yearslong isolation of gang leaders. Many of the hard-core strikers are likely to reach crisis stage in the next two weeks as they reach 60 to 70 days without significant nutrition, Tharratt said. They already are risking irreversible kidney damage, he said, and eventually they won't be able to make decisions about their own care. It is at that stage that Monday's order by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco could come into play. He has given state officials permission to disregard inmates' do-not-resuscitate directives if the officials believe the inmates acted under duress, for instance under threats by gang leaders who organized the hunger strike on behalf of inmates held indefinitely in California's Security Housing Units.[/quote] In general, a hunger strike is considered free expression and doctors can't disobey a do-not-resuscitate directive. The question is, should this be applied to prisoners? Should they be allowed to refuse food and water until they die? Or should the state stop the inmates from starving themselves, even if the inmates choose to do so on their own free will?