Ethical challenges in health care during collective hunger strikes in public or occupied spaces.

Public collective hunger strikes take place in complex social and political contexts, require medical attention and present ethical challenges to physicians. Empirical research, the ethical debate to date and existing guidelines by the World Medical Association focus almost exclusively on hunger strikes in detention. However, the public space differs substantially with regard to the conditions for the provision of health care and the diverse groups of healthcare providers or stakeholders involved.

Providing health care in politically charged contexts: a qualitative study about experiences during a public collective hunger strike of asylum seekers in Germany.

Purpose: Role expectations of physicians providing health care for hunger strikers have been discussed in the context of prisons and detention centres. Ethical guidance for physicians in these situations is codified in the Declaration of Malta. In the last years, new forms of hunger strikes of asylum seekers have occurred.