During Medieval times, torture was used as a form of public punishment and, most dreadfully, as not only a deterrent, but also as entertainment.
3. Torture is absolutely immoral. No conditions or circumstances would ever justify such terrible actions towards a person's fellow human beings. No crime or offense merits the terror, pain and humiliation inflicted upon a human being. No purpose is high or important enough to justify such actions. Along with the rest of the civilized world, I most strongly condemn this form of punishment. While the focus here is torture today, I am particularly horrified by the concept of torture as entertainment. It is the deliberate infliction of severe and unbearable pain upon another human being for the entertainment of others. It cannot be condoned in any civilized world. I believe that modern torture should be viewed in the same light.
Some would argue that the greater good could be served by using torture when all other avenues had been unsuccessfully explored. A popular example is the one of the person who knows how to detonate a bomb that is to kill hundreds of people. If such a person refuses to provide his information, proponents suggests that he should be tortured to save many lives. The lives of hundreds weigh more heavily in this argument than the human rights of a single person.
In my view, however, even such a utilitarian approach is not acceptable. Torturing even one person in order to serve the greater good of saving many lives is still a violation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, regardless of its purpose. As such, torture violates the very principles upon which the country is built. The danger behind this is the erosion of the way of life promised by the Constitution to all citizens within the borders of the country. Even saving hundreds of lives does not merit such an erosion of public trust and peace.
The pragmatic approach is also not acceptable to me. According...
Torture has been a tool of coercion for nearly all of human history, whether to instill fear in a population or force people to convert, but almost all contemporary attempts to justify the use of torture revolve around torture as a means of extracting information from a victim. Used in this context, torture has a number of prominent advocates, despite the fact that ample historical and experimental evidence suggests that
Torture Debate Torture Is Unacceptable Under No Circumstances Argument: torture is unacceptable because it is counterproductive Argument: torture is unacceptable because it is illegal Argument: torture is unacceptable because it is immoral Is Torture Ever Acceptable in Any Way? Although torture has existed as long as human history, liberal democracies in the last two centuries began to argue against the use of torture in all occasions because they began to see torture as a barbaric practice
Torture and the Ticking Time-Bomb The Definition of Torture In 1984, the United Nations General Assembly produced an advisory measure known as the United Nations Convention Against Torture. This document specifically addressed torture from the perspective of governments and states, while it also focuses on the use of torture by any individual acting in an official capacity for said state or government. The document also addressed other forms of 'cruel and inhumane
These logistical problems are only one source of error in Levin's argument, however. The idea of establishing guilt with certainty before using torture fits the utilitarian ethic; it ensures that any reduction in happiness or good to the terrorist is more than compensated for by the increased happiness in the terrorist's would-be victims. The other part of Levin's argument, that torture should only be used as a preventative and not
However, in truth, such incidences are rare and hence based on this pretext there is every danger that torture might become an administrative practice. There is every possibility that torture might become a systemic abuse tool. Thus only if morally permissible conditions prevail can torture be pursued. Another popular perspective is that bringing torture under a legal prism would make it a more effective tool as officials would only
Sung accomplishes the refutation by the simple means of refusing to allow Dershowitz to stand on his assumptions of what permits so radical a circumstance. For example, Sung directly addresses Dershowitz's claim that terrorists are not implicitly owed protection of human dignity rights by virtue of their activities. Dershowitz does make a compelling argument for this but, as Sung points out, he is not actually enabled to take such
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