As Guantanamo Bay Detainees Age, Military Grapples With Questions About End-Of-Life Care
“A lot of my guys are prediabetic,” says Rear Adm. John C. Ring, the commander of the detention center. “Am I going to need dialysis down here? I don’t know. Someone’s got to tell me that. Are we going to do complex cancer care down here? I don’t know. Someone’s got to tell me that.”
The New York Times:
Guantanamo Bay As Nursing Home: Military Envisions Hospice Care As Terrorism Suspects Age
Nobody has a dementia diagnosis yet, but the first hip and knee replacements are on the horizon. So are wheelchair ramps, sleep apnea breathing masks, grab bars on cell walls and, perhaps, dialysis. Hospice care is on the agenda. More than 17 years after choosing the American military base in Cuba as “the least worst place” to incarcerate prisoners from the battlefield in Afghanistan, after years of impassioned debates over the rights of the detainees and whether the prison could close, the Pentagon is now planning for terrorism suspects still held in the facility to grow old and die at Guantánamo Bay. (Rosenberg, 4/27)
Meanwhile, in other news —
ProPublica:
Sailors Report Enduring Concerns About Navy Readiness And Leadership
One officer in the 2nd Fleet lamented that there was still not consistent training to enable men and women to master the wide variety of steering systems in place on the fleet’s ships. A sailor on a 7th Fleet aircraft carrier worried that the widespread problem of sleep deprivation was leading to profound mental health issues, with some sailors being placed on suicide watch. (Tsutsumi, 4/29)
