Last Resort as a Justification for Compulsory Nasogastric Tube Feeding of Adults with Anorexia Nervosa

Nasogastric tube feeding may be imposed on adults with anorexia nervosa without their consent. Although it can preserve life, it can also cause significant and lasting distress, and it is widely accepted that the intervention should be employed only as a last resort. However, the concept of last resort remains insufficiently defined. Clinical guidance and case law in England and Wales use the term to guide decision making, but the thresholds by which a particular action can be considered a last resort are varied and ambiguous. Informed by human rights principles, this article articulates the relevant thresholds for last resort decisions relevant to detention, restraint and high-risk or speculative treatments, clarifying operative meanings by way of a typology.