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Doctors decry detainee force feeding

LONDON, March 10 (UPI) -- More than 260 doctors from seven countries are calling for the United States to stop force feeding and using restraint chairs at Guantanamo prison.

Physicians objecting to U.S. treatment of prisoners are from Britain, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States. They insist the United States abide by internationally agreed standards, reported The Lancet, a British medical journal, on Thursday

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The World Medical Association specifically prohibits force feeding in the Declarations of Tokyo and Malta, to which the American Medical Association is a signatory.

Lawyers for Guantanamo detainees said as many as 200 prisoners were involved in the hunger protest at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, the BBC reported.

Some prisoners have threatened to starve to death unless they are put on trial or released, The Guardian reported

"Physicians attending hunger strikers have a responsibility to respect prisoners' informed decision, even if they disagree," stated David Nicholl of City Hospital in Birmingham, England and his colleagues in their correspondence letter. "Those breaching the guidelines should be held to account by their professional bodies."

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