...to Resort to Torture? I. The Necessary Evil of Torture Torture is only morally justified under two circumstances: when it is the last resort, and when the torture is isolated. The use of torture is only morally just when isolated to a specific individual. Torturing a group of individuals when the torturer is not sure which individual has the information is not acceptable. Also, the use of the victim's family if they are not a suspect, nor have information, is not morally justified to involved them in torture. Lastly, torture is justified when used as a last resort, and to save lives. "Torture involves degrees of pain and fear that are often said to be utterly indescribable…these experiences are sometimes said to destroy...
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...Torture and Terrorism. On September 11, 2001, the U.S. was attacked by the terrorist group Al-Qaida. Terrorists hijacked four airplanes and carried out attack against targets in the United States. September 11 attack resulted in the loss of almost three thousand people, and caused at least ten billion dollars of damage on infrastructure and property. Following the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, the United States of America, which was the number one defender of human rights around the world faced questions about the use of torture to obtain confessions. The debates over torture’s legitimacy created two groups, one defending the use of torture to save innocent people’s lives,...
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...Throughout time, torture has been used to extract important information from people who are unwilling to give it. Some argue that it is a necessary, justified and effective way of forcing someone to release vital information they may not have wanted to, while others argue it is unjustified, unnecessary, violent and inhumane. Governments sometimes characterise torture as an indispensable interrogation tool for gathering strategic intelligence. However as highlighted by countless historical figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Greek philosopher Aristotle, torture is almost always pointless because most people, if put in sufficient pain, will say absolutely anything to stop it (Scott, 1995). Therefore this essay sets out to argue that torture...
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...Torture is a method of gathering information; it dates back to early medieval times where gruesome techniques were used. Throughout the years, the techniques have changed, but the method of torturing for information still survives. Some people encourage the use of torture for information, while others discourage it because they believe that it goes against human ethics. Human ethics are the rights that all humans have, and the big controversy over torture is whether torture goes against those ethics. In this paper the method of torture will be examined for both encouragement and discouragement based on the views each person has of human ethics. It is quite easy to look at worldwide news telecasts and know what kind of things that American...
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...Torture can be initiated through causing some form of mental anguish or physical pain, usually in order to gain information from the person being tortured. Torture is usually punishment for a serious crime,but is usually for the purpose of extracting a confession from an accused person. Many wonder nowadays should torture still be used in this day and age. Torture has been around since the times of the Ancient Greeks and is still around today, notoriously used in criminal organizations but also utilized by various governments when dealing with terrorist. Once the torture of Jews at the hands of the Nazis in World War II became knowledge to the public. In the nineteenth century Public opinion changed on the subject of torture, but torture still continued to be conducted but this time away from the watchful eye of the public International laws were legislated into effect to prevent the use of torture such as the...
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...offers no realistic way to gather the necessary information to make the required calculations. This lack of information is a problem both in evaluating the welfare issues and in evaluating the consequentialist issues which utilitarianism requires be weighed when making moral decisions. Utilitarianism attempts to solve both of these difficulties by appealing to experience; however, no method of reconciling an individual decision with the rules of experience is suggested, and no relative weights are assigned to the In deciding whether or not to torture a terrorist who has planted a bomb in New York City, a utilitarian must evaluate both the overall welfare of the people involved or effected by the action taken, and the consequences of the action taken. To calculate the welfare of the people involved in or effected by an action, utilitarianism requires that all individuals be considered equally. Quantitative utilitarians would weigh the pleasure and pain which would be caused by the bomb exploding against the pleasure and pain that would be caused by torturing the terrorist. Then, the amounts would be summed and compared. The problem with this method is that it is impossible to know beforehand how much pain would be caused by the bomb exploding or how much pain would be caused by the torture. Utilitarianism offers no practical way to make the interpersonal comparison of utility necessary to compare the pains. In the case of...
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...Torture and Ethics Paper Alfreepha Williams AJS/532 July 21, 2013 Patricia DeAngelis Torture and Ethics There are many views or definition of the word “torture”, which is often debated by many individuals. According to “International Rehabilitation Council For Torture Victims” (2005-2012), “torture is an act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining information or a confession, punishing him for an act committed” (para. 2). “Torture is anguish of body or mind; something that causes agony or pain; the infliction of intense pain (from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure; or distortion or over refinement of a meaning or an argument” (“Torture,” 2013). There are debates about torture and whether or not is unethical or a cruel and unusual punishment. People have been taught to believe that torturing a person is unacceptable and inhumane. However, the torturing of an enemy to get answers is not considered cruel and inhumane especially, when it involves saving the lives of many. This paper will analyze whether torturing enemy combatants or high-value targets violates standards of morality in an American free society. It will also examine whether the act of torture violates basic human rights and if it could have global implications, and last determine if torture may be justified under ontological, deontological, utilitarianism, or the natural...
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...Chase Vanzant Phil201 August 16, 2013 To Torture or Not??? According to the Utilitarianism perspective, “the utilitarian is concerned with maximizing the benefits for the maximum number of people” (Holmes, Pg. 43), which invokes an appropriate theoretic principle for the probability of diminishing the resolve of the prisoner through torture. These efforts of torture would also be associated with consequentialism, which is results oriented; driven to achieve the best results by any means necessary and doing whatever is needed to get the job done by allowing the ends to justify the means. Obtaining the needed information by means of torture for the benefit of saving human lives would be the underlying principle of achieving the greatest good for the greater number of individuals involved. Kantian duty-based ethics states, “we must act out of regard for duty and respect for moral law, (…) always treat persons as ends and not just as means” (Holmes, Pg. 63), which would be associated with deontology that is ruled based. As an American being threatened with terrorist attacks, which would cause massive loss of life, a duty to America and its citizens would be to obtain any and all necessary intelligence that would aid in preventing such an act. Acting on a moral and civic duty to country and person(s) as well as a respect for life, deontologists would not necessarily be against...
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...thought it was necessary to use physical pressure in order to prevent many deaths, he could take his chances, be prosecuted, and try to raise a defense of “necessity”. In my book Shouting Fire, I wrote critically of this decision on the ground that it places security officials in an impossible dilemma. It would be better if any such official could seek an advanced ruling from a judge, as to whether physical pressure is warranted under the specific circumstances, in order to avoid being subject to an after the fact risk of imprisonment. Thus was born the proposal for a torture warrant. Actually it was a rebirth, because half a millennium ago torture warrants were part of the law of Great Britain. They could be sought only in cases involving grave threats to the Crown or the Empire and were granted in about one case a year. Judges even in those times, were extremely reluctant to authorize the thumb screw. Why then should we even think about returning to an old practice that was abolished in England many years ago. The reason is because if we ever did have a ticking bomb case - - especially a ticking nuclear bomb case - - law enforcement officials would in fact resort to physical force, even torture, as a last resort. In speaking to numerous audiences since September 11th - - audiences reflecting the entire breadth of the political and ideological spectrum - - I have asked for a show of hands as to how many would favor the use of non-lethal torture in an actual ticking...
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...current debate regarding torture being used as an interrogation measure stands whether or not forms of torture are being masked as “enhanced” interrogation techniques to extract information from suspected terrorists. The argument in Essay 161 is that waterboarding and other severe interrogation methods constitute as torture, and are not effective. Therefore, we should find alternative solutions to extract information. The argument in Essay 172 is that severe interrogation methods are necessary to save the lives of hundreds or thousands of innocent lives. Therefore, we should reject the arguments made by those against severe interrogation methods. In this paper, I will evaluate each of these arguments and furthermore say which argument is stronger with evidence. Enhanced interrogation methods refers to the U.S government’s program of systematic torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency (and others) authorized by the George W. Bush administration.3 Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized suspect, causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning. Waterboarding can cause extreme pain, dry drowning, damage to lungs, brain damage from oxygen deprivation, and other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, lasting psychological damage, and death.3 Whether waterboarding should be classified as a method of torture or not since it was...
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...Is Torture Always Immoral? Is torture always immoral? That is a question with many possible answers by many different groups but we need to define torture and is torture the same in all cultures? Since 9/11 we have heard of many forms of torture, this has been a topic of contention among foreign leaders and government officials, all of the discussion has led to debates about torture. Torture is defined as the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty. (Harper, 2011) This is a clean-cut statement of torture that is sometimes construed by the observer. The act of torture being immoral is taking it a step further, to be immoral would be violating moral principles; not conforming to the patterns of conduct usually accepted or established as consistent with principles of personal and social ethics. ("Dictionary.com,") If torture works for the reason of getting a confession or punishment, it is still immoral in the view of many Christians, Jews and other religious people in our community but there are groups that would say we need to use means of torture to prevent another catastrophe such as 9/11 from ever happening again. A form of torture that is debatable is water boarding, this is when a person is strapped to a board and undergoes periods of having large amounts of water poured directly over their mouths and nose so that they feel like they are going to drown. When the water...
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... | | |Should the state employ torture as a method of obtaining information for the sake of protecting its citizens? | | Immanuel Kant’s philosophy is driven by his passion and concern for the dignity of the individual autonomous will. He believed that autonomous will has worth in itself because it is an end in itself. (Otteson,2009) If one is a Kantian, the use of torture to obtain information from a human being would not be an option. A true Kantian believes that all humanity should be treated with respect both in themselves and in others but never as a means to an end. In addition, one is never permitted to abuse someone’s humanity. The violent act of torturing another human being for any given reason is not moral. Further, to apply universal morality to this act the state would have to enforce the same treatment for everyone they need to obtain the truth from. Moral laws are universal principles of which all human beings are subject to. There are no excuses for breaking the moral law nor can it be manipulated to cover one’s self. A Kantian would also disagree with the maxim or reasoning behind the State’s means to use violence on another human being. There is no justification that would allow anyone to inflict harm to another human being, hoping to benefit from the act. The act of torture causes pain to the individual and the affects all parties connected to them....
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...Essay #5 In Michael Levin’s essay “The Case for Torture,” he states that most view torture as unacceptable and is rejected by our society. Levin also says that in some circumstances torture is not only necessary but also morally compelling. He recognizes that torture is unlawful but that does not matter when millions of lives may be at stake. He believes it’s a lot worse to let millions of innocents die then to just torture one guilty terrorist. Levin also makes clear that torture should not be used to punish. Levin notes the difference between the terrorist and its victim: The victim is unwillingly risking his or her life as opposed to the terrorist he or she is risking his or her life voluntarily which implies that he or she is giving up rights by committing such action. Levin also says that doing nothing to stop evil is the biggest issue. After reviewing Levin’s essay carefully I feel he does not have enough convincing information. The scenarios he uses as examples are not likely to happen in real life so he doesn’t have much credibility. Torture is defined as the intentional infliction of severe mental or physical pain or suffering by or with the consent of the state authorities for a specific purpose. Torture is often used to punish, to obtain information or a confession, to take revenge on a person or persons or create terror and fear. Some of the most common methods of physical torture include beating, electric shocks, stretching, submersion or waterboarding...
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...Torture Despite the strong commitments of the US legal system of torture, ever since 9/11, torture became an acceptable tool to be used. The practice of torture is difficult to address because there is not a concrete definition of what torture is. Thinking torture can be justified is not the same as thinking it is necessary. A survey posted by The Huffington Post, concluded that respondents were more uncertain about whether information gained through torturing suspected terrorists is generally reliable or unreliable. The survey also found significant uncertainty over whether the U.S. had used torture to track down Big Laden, as the new movie “Zero Dark Thirty” portrays. As defined by dictionary.com, “torture is the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.” However, there are many other definitions. Defined by the United Nations Convention Against Torture, torture is an act where intentional pain is inflicted on a purpose. According to the Third Geneva Convention, torture is known to cause no “no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever”. Who draws the line as to which specific practices are harsh enough to correspond to those words? Some have suggested that torture is worse than killing, and that torturing the innocent is morally worse than murder. The most prevalent forms...
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...Terrorism: Does It Justify the Use of Torture Eric M. Skogen SOC 120 Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility Prof. Linda Atkinson January 23, 2012 Terrorism: Does It Justify the Use of Torture Torture is used by governments throughout the world to include the United States as way to extract information from a person or persons. By inflicting severe pain the torturer forces the captive to do or say something that could lead to information of a supposed terrorist attack or pertinent details of upcoming events. The act of torture has been used against prisoners of war, possible insurgents, religious sympathizers and political prisoners since Christ was crucified at the cross. In the early 1970’s, certain governments begin to see a form of violence start to evolve called “terrorism” and with that came prisoners who were called “terrorists.” Although many countries employ torture techniques against those that are dubbed “political prisoners” not all countries label them as terrorists or even face potential threats of terrorism to the extent other countries do. Over the next several pages I will discuss events that have taken place since the 1970’s leading up to the current terrorist acts we face today and how the use of torture has played a role in these events. I will also discuss how the use of torture brings up a great ethical debate of what is right and wrong and how governments attempt to justify the use of torture. I will state how one of the classical...
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