<P> Some countries force - feed prisoners when they go on hunger strike . 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". The violation of this prohibition may be carried out in a manner that can be categorised as torture, as it may be extremely painful and result in severe bleeding and spreading of various diseases via the exchanged blood and mucus, especially when conducted with dirty equipment on a prison population . Large feeding pipes are traditionally used on hunger striking prisoners whereas thin pipes are preferred in hospitals . </P> <P> Suffragettes who had been imprisoned while campaigning for votes for women went on hunger strike and were force fed . (This lasted until the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act of 1913, better known as the Cat and Mouse Act, whereby debilitated prisoners would be released, allowed to recover, and then re-arrested .) Rubber tubes were inserted through the mouth (only occasionally through the nose) and into the stomach, and food poured down; the suffragettes were held down by force while the instruments were inserted into their bodies, an experience which has been likened to rape . In a smuggled letter, Sylvia Pankhurst described how the warders held her down and forced her mouth open with a steel gag . Her gums bled, and she vomited most of the liquid up afterwards . </P> <P> Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the Women's Social and Political Union, was horrified by the screams of women being force - fed in HM Prison Holloway . She wrote: "Holloway became a place of horror and torment . Sickening scenes of violence took place almost every hour of the day, as the doctors went from cell to cell performing their hideous office ....I shall never while I live forget the suffering I experienced during the days when those cries were ringing in my ears ." When prison officials tried to enter her cell, Pankhurst, in order to avoid being force - fed, raised a clay jug over her head and announced: "If any of you dares so much as to take one step inside this cell I shall defend myself ." </P> <P> In 1914, Frances Parker, another suffragette, was being force - fed by the rectum in the Perth prison: "Thursday morning, 16th July...the three wardresses appeared again . One of them said that if I did not resist, she would send the others away and do what she had come to do as gently and as decently as possible . I consented . This was another attempt to feed me by the rectum, and was done in a cruel way, causing me great pain . She returned some time later and said she had' something else' to do . I took it to be another attempt to feed me in the same way, but it proved to be a grosser and more indecent outrage, which could have been done for no other purpose than torture . It was followed by soreness, which lasted for several days ." </P>

Is it illegal to force feed a child