An anorexic woman who hasn’t eaten in a year is being forced to eat! A judge ordered the 32-year-old woman to be fed. Click below to read more.

Melissa Nash

An anorexic woman who reportedly hasn’t eaten solid food in more than a year can be forcibly fed, a judge in London ruled Friday.

The 32-year-old former medical student, who suffers other chronic health conditions, has been living in a community hospital since April 20, according to court documents.

Speaking at the Court of Protection in London, Judge Peter Jackson declared that ordering the woman, identified only as E, be fed is “proportionate and necessary in order to protect her right to life,” according to the Telegraph.

E’s case was brought to the court after local authorities became concerned that her death was imminent, as “she was refusing to eat, and was taking only a small amount of water,” according to a court document.

The document also notes that E has a history of alcoholism, was sexually abused as a child and has been in and out of treatment for eating disorders since 2006. She also suffers from unstable personality disorder.

In July 2011, E signed a document stating that she does not want to be resuscitated or be given any medical intervention to prolong her life.

“It is this mixture of conditions which has, at least, made her so difficult to treat,” Dr. Tyrone Glover says in the document.

Glover adds that E’s body mass index (BMI) was last measured as 11.3. A normal BMI for a woman is between 18.5 and 24.9, while a BMI less than 14 represents dangerous weight loss and a BMI less than 12 indicates increased risk of sudden cardiac death.

“For E, the compulsion to prevent calories entering her system has become the card that trumps all others,” Jackson said. “The need not to gain weight overpowers all other thoughts.”

In the U.K. and the U.S., it is legal to administer medical treatment — including force-feeding — to patients who are mentally ill, or whose lives are in danger and they are unable to make the decision on their own.

Despite the law, Jackson’s decision went against friends’ wishes that E be allowed to die a “dignified death.”

But he acknowledged that the ruling was “a heavy one.”

“On one side, I have been struck by the fact that the people who know E best do not favor further treatment,” Jackson said.

But the judge insists feeding the woman is in her best interest.

“E is a special person, whose life is of value. She does not see it that way now, but she may in the future,” he said.

“I would not overrule her wishes if further treatment was futile, but it is not. Although extremely burdensome to E, there is a possibility that it will succeed.”