Why Is Torture Wrong

We all have a general understanding of what torture is but do we ever think about whether torture morally right or wrong? Torture can be defined as, ‘‘the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions.” Under international law it is against the law to use torture in any situation no matter what. In this essay I will argue that torture is always morally wrong. I will prove this by observation of the time ticking scenario which will provide justification for torture in extravagant situations. After arguing about whether torture
The ticking bomb scenario puts us in the situation where a terrorist plants a nuclear bomb somewhere in the city, the police capture the leader, he knows where the bomb is but he refuses to tell where it is hidden. Now the only way of having a chance of getting the information out of this man is to torture him to save thousands of people’s lives. It is not guaranteed that he will tell where the bomb is but at least there is a chance that the torture that he receives gets so bad that he is forced to tell the location of the bomb resulting in thousands of people’s lives being saved. The utilitarian says that it is unethically acceptable to torture this man, even when there are thousands of people’s lives at risk. So in this particular case there is no ethically acceptable course of action here, whatever you do is morally wrong. Torturing this man is and ethically wrong act, but it is obviously understandable and I can stand up to arguing for this any day of the week. In some cases an ethically wrong act can be forgiven like in this case because it is a logical human choice to make under these