Abstract
This article poses a response to one argument supporting the force feeding of political prisoners. This argument assumes that prisoners have moral autonomy and thus cannot be force fed in the early stages of their hunger strike. However, as their fasting progresses, their cognitive competence declines, and they are no longer autonomous. Since they are no longer autonomous, force feeding becomes justified. This article questions the recurrent citation of a paper in empirical support of the claim that hunger strike causes mental disorders or cognitive impairments. The paper, written by Daniel Fessler, partially relies on the Minnesota Starvation Experiment conducted in 1944 to 1945 for scientific support. Using widely accepted criteria for assessing the ethical acceptability of clinical research, we argue that the Minnesota Starvation Experiment had significant scientific shortcomings and is a case of unethical research. From this, we question the appropriateness of citing the Minnesota Starvation Experiment and consequently Fessler’s paper. If Citing Fessler’s paper becomes problematic, this particular argument for the force feeding of prisoners loses much of its strength.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjQ3sStzxaU. Accessed April 14, 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5mujgdy8qo. Accessed April 14, 2021.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment. Accessed April 14, 2021.
Garrett Hardin mentions the study to demonstrate that people tend to be egocentric (Hardin 2008).
By “use” we potentially mean all three interpretations provided by Freedman: citation these data, inferring medical conclusions based on these data, and data as serving to suggest areas of research (Freedman 1992).
References
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. 1995. Washington, D.C.
American Public Media. 2018. Battles of belief in World War II. American public Media. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/wwii/a1.html. Accessed April 14, 2021.
Angell, M. 1990. The Nazi hypothermia experiments and unethical research today. New England Journal of Medicine 322(20): 1462-1464.
Ball, J. 2014. The Minnesota starvation experiment. BBC World Service, January 20. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25782294. Accessed April 14, 2021.
Barilan, M., O. Golan, S. Glick, et al. 2015. Position paper: The moral attitude towards hunger strikers.
Barilan, M.Y. 2017. The role of doctors in hunger strikes. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 27(3): 341-369.
Beecher, H.K. 1966. Ethics and clinical research. New England Journal of Medicine 274(24): 1354-1360.
Berger, R.L. 1992. Nazi science: Comments on the validation of the Dachau human hypothermia experiements. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 109-134. New York: Springer Science.
Bogod, D. 2004. The Nazi hypothermia experiments: Forbidden data? Anaesthesia 59(12): 1155-1156.
Caplan, A.L. 1992. How did medicine go so wrong? When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 53-92. New York: Springer Science.
Eckert, E.D., I. I. Gottesman, S.E. Swigart and R.C. Casper. 2018. A 57-year follow-up investigation and review of the Minnesota study on human starvation and its relevance to eating disorders. Archives of Psychology 2(3).
Emanuel, E.J., D. Wendler, and C. Grady. 2000. What makes clinical research ethical? Journal of the American Medical Association 283(20): 2701-2711.
Fessler, D.M.T. 2003. The implications of starvation induced psychological changes for the ethical treatment of hunger strikers. Journal of Medical Ethics 29: 243-247.
Freedman, B. 1992. Moral analysis and the use of Nazi experimental results. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 141-154. New York: Springer Science.
Garasic, M.D. 2016. Force-feeding, hunger strikes, Guantanamo and autonomy: Replies to George Annas, Charles Foster and Michael Gross. Journal of Medical Ethics 43(1): 28-29.
Greene, V. 1992. Can scientists use information derived from the concentration camps? In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 155-170. New York, Springer Science.
Hardin, G. 2008. Who cares for posteriority? In Environmental Ethics, edited by L.P. Pojman and P. Pojman. Thomson Wadsworth.
Hunter, D. 2012. Editorial: The publication of unethical research. Research Ethics 8(2): 67-70.
Jacquet, P., Y. Schutz, J.-P. Montani, and A. Dulloo. 2020. How dieting might make some fatter: Modeling weight cycling toward obesity from a perspective of body composition autoregulation. International Journal of Obesity 44(6): 1243-1253.
Kalm, L.M., and R.D. Semba. 2005. They starved so that others be better fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota experiment. The Journal of Nutrition 135(6): 1347-1352.
Katz, J., and R.S. Pozos. 1992. The Dachau hypothermia study: An ethical and scientific commentary. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 135-140. New York, Springer Science.
Keys, A., J. Brozek, A. Henschel, O. Mickelsen, and H. L. Taylor. 1950a. The biology of human starvation, Vol I. Minneapolis, USA: University of Minnesota Press.
Keys, A., J. Brozek, A. Henschel, O. Mickelsen, and H.L. Taylor. 1950b. The biology of human starvation, Vol II. Minneapolis, USA: University of Minnesota Press.
Konopka, G. 1992. The meaning of the holocaust for bioethics. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 15-20. New York, Springer Science.
Kor, E.M. 1992. Nazi experiments as viewed by a survivor of Mengele's experiments. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 3-8. New York, Springer Science.
Lederman, Z. 2018. Prisoners’ competence to die: Hunger strike and cognitive competence. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 39(4): 321–334.
Lederman, Z., and S. Lederman. 2017. The land of no milk and no honey: Force feeding in Israel. Monash Bioethics Review 34(3): 158-188.
Moe, K. 1984. Should the Nazi research data be cited. The Hastings Center Report 14(6): 5-7.
Muller-Hill, B. 1992. Eugenics: The science and religion of the Nazis. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 43-52. New York, Springer Science.
Pozos, R.S. 1992. Scientific inquiry and ethics: The Dachau data. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 95-108. New York, Springer Science.
Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. 2011. Ethically impossible: STD research in Guatemala from 1946-1948. Washington, D.C.
Ridley, A. 1995. Ill-gotten gains: On the use of results from unethical experiments in medicine. Public Affairs Quarterly 9(3): 253-266.
Segal, N.L. 1992. Twin research at Auschwitz-Birkenau: Implications for the use of Nazi data today. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 281-300. New York, Springer Science.
Tucker, T. 2007. The great starvation experiment. Ancel Keys and the men who starved for science. Minneapolis, USA: University of Minnesota Press.
Vigorito, S.S. 1992. A profile of Nazi medicine. In When medicine went mad: Bioethics and the holocaust, edited by A.L. Caplan, 9-14. New York, Springer Science.
Weingarten, M. 2017. Force-feeding political prisoners on hunger strike. Clinical Ethics 12(2): 1-9.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lederman, Z., Voo, T.C. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment and Force Feeding of Prisoners—Relying on Unethical Research to Justify the Unjustifiable. Bioethical Inquiry 18, 407–416 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-021-10109-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-021-10109-z