'There's a real possibility of death,' says Labrador doctor about hunger strikes

​Now that Inuk artist Billy Gauthier is into the eighth day of his hunger strike against planned Muskrat Falls flooding, some are questioning just how long the human body can survive without food.   

Gauthier began his hunger strike on Oct. 14, and has since been joined by as many as three other people. The strikers are set up in the protest camp across the Trans-Labrador Highway from the Muskrat Falls construction site. 

Dr. Gabe Woollam, a physician at the Labrador Health Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, said although every person is different, it's amazing how well a body can regulate without any energy intake.

"Initially, the body starts to break down fat to make sugar to supply the energy to the brain, the heart and vital organs, to keep those things going," he said.

Woollam added that once a person's fat stores have been used up, the body then starts to break down important tissue such as muscle to create energy.

"At that point, people can run into problems with starvation. There's not a whole lot of evidence to go on, to figure out exactly how long someone can survive without food," he said.

"There is some data out there that suggests people could live eight to 12 weeks without any food whatsoever — and potentially up to as much as 20 to 25 weeks, in some extreme situations."

Woollam said it's important that a physician, during assessment, checks to see if the person has the mental competency to make the decision to embark on a hunger strike.

"As long as that person has the capacity to understand, and can have a conversation with me that shows they understand the consequences of what they're doing ... and [to] make sure they don't have any severe mental illness," Woollam said.

"It's a very serious decision. There's a real possibility of death, or getting into very serious medical problems as your body starts to starve."

WMA takes strong stance

Woollam said the World Medical Association takes a "fairly strong stance" regarding ethics for physicians on force-feeding during hunger strikes. While he chose not to speak on specific cases, Woollam said it's the role of a physician to not bring their own prejudices or ethical concerns into the patient-doctor relationship.

There's a real possibility of death, or getting into very serious medical problems as your body starts to starve.- Dr. Gabe Woollam

"My job is to attend to any patient who's requesting an assessment. It's not my role to pass judgement on what they're choosing to do," he said. 

"There are situations obviously where people decide for political reasons not to eat as a form of protest, or hunger strike, and the World Medical Association has a set of guidelines for the role of a physician in those situations."