The Pentagon official said the document does not change policy and practice at the remote base where some of the 465 war-on-terror captives have engaged in periodic hunger strikes since the interrogation center was established more than four years ago.

Instead, he said, it compiles detention policies for military medical personnel into a single document.

Seventeen captives were engaging in a hunger strike Tuesday, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, a Guantánamo spokesman. Four were being force-fed liquid nutrition through tubes snaked through their noses and into their stomachs.

Guantánamo employs ''involuntary feeding'' on the recommendation of a physician and by approval of the admiral in charge of the prison after a captive has refused nine consecutive meals.

Since January, force-fed detainees have been trapped into a restraint chair -- described by those who have seen it as similar to a dental chair -- twice a day for 45 minutes at a time.

All other considerations aside (i.e., interrogation practices, etc.), is it right to impede a prisoners attempt to commit suicide? Is it acceptable to allow a prisoner to commit suicide by starving themselves to death? How about if they have a terminal disease? What if they have an advanced directive which specifies they no longer wish to live once incarcerated?