The main idea of this passage is to expose the irrelevance of the ticking bomb scenario for the topic of torture. The article as a whole does not take a direct stand for or against or torture, however, it slightly attacks the areas for torture. In addition, with a vast amount of reasoning and evidence the authors cover all areas relating to the topic of torture such as morals and humanity being the most controversial questioned issues in reference to the…
References: ROMERO, S. (2012). Leader’s Torture in the ’70s Stirs Ghosts in Brazil. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/world/americas/president-rousseffs-decades-old-torture-detailed.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0…
At some point everyone has heard of torture. It could have been in a movie or on the news, but they have heard of it. In this day and age, people would like to have believed it was all behind us in the past. Then 9/11 happened, everyone’s lives were changed with one simple act of cruelty. Before 9/11 hit the U.S. in a wave of pain, panic, and anger, our viewpoints on torture would probably have been less likely that it should be allowed. The decision to torture people who are suspected of being part of terrorist groups has always been decided by the government, for the simple reason that it is required to keep us safe from harm. Some people believe that torture is cruel, unsightly and just inhumane. On the other hand there are people who see it the same way but also believe it could be necessary in extreme circumstances. We’re going to look at two different points of torture: When it is acceptable and when it is not acceptable.…
If torture is used in retaliation and as an “eye to eye” concept, then torture would be an unethical way of punishing someone (Guidebook). For this example, I would argue that torture is being used to provide the members with the realization for their actions, so torture is an unethical way of punishment. Also, torture is not a replacement for the death penalty, so it is not saving an individual’s life because in the guidebook it states that if “torture is vengeful and not being used to protect innocent lives, then it is not technically a moral reason for punishing someone” (Guidebook). Without protecting innocent lives, torture cannot be considered an ethical reason for punishing someone, so I would argue that the type of punishment that should be used is an elongated amount of jail time. Incarceration meets all the requirements for being a moral type of punishment because it doesn't cause mental harm that torture would and incarcerating the members would not be a retaliating…
Dr. Michael Levin is a philosophy professor at the City University of New York. His areas of research interest include publications on metaphysics, epistemology, race, homosexuality, animal rights, the philosophy of archeology, the philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, and the philosophy of science. In his article "The Case for Torture” published by Newsweek in 1982, Michael Levin is defending the use of torture as being necessary and justifiably in some extreme cases in order to preserve the greater good of human society. In connection with this he is analyzing the problematic issue of the usage of torture towards terrorists. In his opinion this should be a topic to be taken more and more into consideration also by the Western democracies, as such kind of acts of terrorism will happen even with a more frequency in the future.…
John McCain’s the essay Torture’s Terrible Toll is a much more persuasive essay because McCain, rather than the essay, The case of torture by Michael Levin. McCain’s essay describes his own personal experience in describing how torture is very useless. That he has seen/ had to go through the pain and agony through his own point of view. However, Levin uses hypothetical cases on why torture is beneficial.…
Is the intentional pain that an individual experiences justified by the possibility of preserving the lives of many? Torture is the used as a weapon, but in reality does it work? The purpose of this essay is to identify what the motives are for using torture, the effectiveness of torture, and important issues or flaws with the entire process of torture.…
There are many questions relating to the use of torture against any person whatsoever. As such, there are different perspectives on the ethics of its usage as well. While some believe that the use of torture becomes necessary at times, others believe that whatever the circumstances are, torture can never be justified. Some very pertinent issues related to the use of torture are, “Suppose a child has been kidnapped and a person has been suspected of committing the crime. Is it justifiable to torture that person in order to try to extract information from him about the child? Now suppose the person would not react at all if he is subjected to torture but there is a chance that he would divulge information if his child of the similar age as the…
Therefore, consequences are irrelevant if the torture is based on the moral duty and therefore torture would be ethical. The universal moral law only acts on your will if there is a moral consequence based on duty. If you can’t rationalize the ends to justify the means, then it’s wrong. Respect their autonomy. I base this on the information in the article and podcast that are part of the project resource. There is no moral principle in his way of thinking and states, emotions that are irrational. He doesn’t approve of emotions in correlation to human reactions. Emotions can cloud the…
This paper addresses one of the most abiding and heated controversies surrounding the topic of torture and morality. Put simply, this controversy concerns the issue of whether under extreme and exceptional circumstances, a government agency should be legally permitted to use torture as a means of punishment or extracting information. According to Oxford Dictionary, torture is defined as “The action of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or in order to force them to do or say something”.…
None of these studies except Hanns Scharff`s have not been studied why we need to torture and not just have a conservation with trickery and deceitfulness instead of torturing people that may or may not have anything to do with what is happening between countries and have no information about the topic in hand therefore will be tortured until death because of the lack of information that they have.Most people are just pons playing in a king's battle that have no information even if they joined their…
By torturing captured terrorists during the interrogation process, supporters of torture of terrorists also advocate that the country have the absolute right to implement various usage of torture, regardless of what foreign countries believe. Supporters of torture of terrorist continue to justify their means of why torture is essential, because if terrorists attack America, it is the United States of America right absolutely to punish terrorists by any means…
The million of innocent lives claimed by acts of terror, have never been acceptable. Terrorist are destroying our nation and we can’t combat it because torture is not an option. We must now choose a side of allowing them american rights or taking advantage of a useful tactic. The tactic (Torture) would ensure we have information in the time frame needed, it has a history of being efficient, and It will save thousands of lives.…
“Physical torture can affect the brain, too. But by itself, “psychological torture undermines the very ability to think, and it doesn’t leave any marks.”- Psychologist Steven Reisner. One of the many techniques the government uses to interrogate mainly terrorist is a form of torture to get them to give up information. They use techniques such as waterboarding, rectal feeding and hydration, confinement in boxes, using cold water beating, threats, etc. Using torture is very uncommon, it is only used in rare and extreme situations. Torture is not used to kill suspects, but instead a quick way to get information from those who are being interrogated. I believe that torture should not be used under any circumstances to get information. Instead they should find others means to get what they need.…
By definition, torture is “ the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment.” The representation of torture has been a key controversy in academic literature and continues to spark conversations among critics today. This topic is current when acknowledging the growing popularity of torture by the world’s governments in recent years, and how the existence of torture in the modern world has raised difficult questions for writers on their representation of torture (Gallagher). J.M Coetzee’s novel Waiting for the Barbarian represents torture in a contextual, and metaphorical way that pushes the boundaries of this topic. Coetzee represents torture through the use of the protagonist, the Magistrate as an allegory for…