Force-feeding

The term gavage (UK: /ˈɡævɑːʒ, ɡæˈvɑːʒ/,[2][3] US: /ɡəˈvɑːʒ/,[3][4] French: [ɡavaʒ] ⓘ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose (nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into the stomach.

in extreme cases, patients with anorexia nervosa who continually refuse significant dietary intake and weight restoration interventions may be involuntarily fed by force via nasogastric tube under restraint within specialist psychiatric hospitals.

It has been prohibited since 1975 by the Declaration of Tokyo of the World Medical Association, provided that the prisoner is "capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment."

"[12] In 1911, Wiliam Ball, a male working class supporter who had broken two windows and consequently been sentenced to two months, was given this treatment and then separated from contact with his family, leading to his clandestine transfer to a mental hospital.

[16]In 1914, Frances Parker, another Scottish suffragette, was being force-fed by the rectum (a nutrient enema, a standard procedure before the invention of intravenous therapy) and once by the vagina[15] in the Perth prison: Thursday morning, 16th July ... the three wardresses appeared again.

Barnes wrote, "If I, play acting, felt my being burning with revolt at this brutal usurpation of my own functions, how they who actually suffered the ordeal in its acutest horror must have flamed at the violation of the sanctuaries of their spirits."

In 1917 the Irish republican leader Thomas Ashe died as a result of complications from such a feeding while incarcerated at Dublin's Mountjoy Jail.

Gerry Kelly, Hugh Feeney and sisters Dolours and Marian Price were force-fed while on hunger strike in separate British prisons.

[20] Ethel Byrne was the first female political prisoner in the United States to be subjected to force feeding[21] after she was jailed at Blackwell Island workhouse on January 22, 1917, for her activism in advocating for the legalization of birth control.

[23][24][25] In the 2009 case Lantz v. Coleman,[26] the Connecticut Superior Court authorized the state Department of Correction to force-feed a competent prisoner who had refused to eat voluntarily.

[27] In 2009, terrorist Richard Reid, known as the "shoe bomber," was force-fed while on a hunger strike at the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX, the federal supermax prison in Colorado.

[30] The Associated Press quoted one 22-year old asylum seeker who alleged that "he was dragged from his cell three times a day and strapped down on a bed as a group of people poured liquid into tubes inserted into his nose.

"[32] On December 6, 2006, the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague approved the use of force-feeding of Serbian politician Vojislav Šešelj.

"[33] In 2015, the Knesset passed a law allowing the force-feeding of prisoners in response to a hunger strike by a Palestinian detainee who had been held for months in administrative detention.

Israeli doctors refused to feed Mohammad Allan against his will, and he resumed eating after the Supreme Court temporarily released him.

[37] A similar situation played out in 2014 when 21 year old convicted anarchist bank robber and childhood friend of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, Nikos Romanos who engaged in a hunger-strike for access to education which lead to a force-feeding being ordered.

[47] Some Africans on the Middle Passage journey to slavery in the United States tried to take their own lives by starving themselves, and were force fed with a contraption called the speculum orum.

This term specifically refers to force-feeding of ducks or geese in order to fatten their livers in the production of foie gras.

For geese, after an initial free-range period and treatment to assist in esophagus dilation (eating grass, for example), the force-feeding commences.

Waterfowl are suited to the tube method due to a non-existent gag reflex and an extremely flexible esophagus, unlike other fowl such as chickens.

These migratory waterfowl are also said to be ideal for gavage because of their natural ability to gain large amounts of weight in short periods of time before cold seasons.

In modern Egypt, the practice of fattening geese and male Muscovy ducks by force-feeding them various grains is present, unrelated to foie gras production, but for general consumption.