Anorexic woman may be force-fed if necessary, judge orders

A young woman with anorexia nervosa may be force-fed through a tube against her wishes if necessary, the High Court has ruled, after being told doctors believe she is "in danger of losing her life".

The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, directed the woman may be fed through a PEG tube over the next 48 hours after hearing she refused any nutrition last weekend.

The woman, in her early 20s, is significantly underweight and suffers from severe psychotic depression involving hearing a critical voice saying she is obese.

Peter Finlay SC, for the HSE, said the woman’s father was in court and supported the HSE’s application for the feeding order.

Counsel said the woman weighs 36kg, about five and a half stone. She was readmitted to hospital in September when she told staff that, in previous weigh-ins, she had concealed weights in her clothing.

In an affidavit, a consultant psychiatrist said the woman had also begun over-exercising and, in some three weeks, had lost 17 per cent of her body weight.