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Should Torture Ever Be Justified Analysis

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Should Torture Ever be Justified? What is the overall view on the morality of torture? Are you an absolutist, one who holds absolute principles in political, philosophical, or theological matters, or one that strongly agrees or disagrees with the matter overall? Torture’s main purpose is to extract confessions, to terrorize people that are associated with people, to punish those that have been presumed as wrongdoers, and to amuse sadist or bullies. No matter the reasoning, torture has been said to be morally wrong. There are many reasons as to why torture is ineffective and counterproductive starting with the types of torture that people endure. According to the merriam-webster dictionary, torture is the action or practice of inflicting pain …show more content…

Repeated or extreme stress and pain can affect the memory of the victim; They are unlikely to say/do what the torturer wants at first. Stress also releases catecholamines, which enlarges the structures involved in processing fear, also impairing memory and the ability to distinguish a true memory from a false or implanted one. Therefore one will eventually give in to the interrogator whether the information they are providing is accurate or not. As seen, torture is nonetheless wrong. However a torturer will not stop there, going as far is changing the views and beliefs of their victim. Torture is a lot of things, but when an individual is rethinking their beliefs, that is when damage has been successful to the extremes. One may be tortured until they abandon their own views and beliefs in order to adapt to those of their torturer. They have not only been beaten as well as abused, but the torturers will find a way to get inside the heads of their victims, messing with their mindset.They then become just another means to support the regime of the torturer. One should never use torture as a means to convert the way that someone believes to something that you believe. Nor should anyone ever use torture as a way to devalue …show more content…

There are multiple types of torture that a person may go through and there are many reasons as to why it is not right in the slightest. One will begin to sink down to the level of thinking like the torturer and believing that what is happening to them is not completely wrong. Not only will they devalue their victims, but they will also go as far as dehumanizing the victim in order to make the torturing easier to do. One could either say that it is always moral, but there will be those who agree to disagree. Torture should never be justified and is in no way moral. The discussion of whether or not torture should ever be okay, has been heatedly debated. Torture is illegal, it demoralizes humans rights, devalues a person, changes one’s views, and is very ineffective the majority of the time. As previously said you can either be an absolutist or one that agrees or disagrees. Which one do you believe is

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185 Words | 1 Pages

In the article “The Case for Torture”, Michael Levin argues that the use of torture as a way to save lives is justifiable and necessary. Levin draws a series of cases where torture might be acceptable so as to set certain precedent for the justification of torture in more realistic cases. HoweverLevin illustrates three cases where torture might be justifiable.he describes a terrorist keeping city of millions hostage to an atomic bomb, the second, a terrorist who has implanted remote bombs on a plane and the third, a terrorist who has kidnapped a baby. torture and its consequences have been recorded in countries around of world over a vast span of time, and for a variety of reasons. Levin makes no such attempt to expand his article beyond

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Many have said that they would want nonlethal torture to be used in such cases but “did not want torture to be officially recognized by our legal system.” Similar statements have posited that while “torture might be necessary in a given situation it could never be right.” This approach, that of keeping torture off-the-books, is in direct conflict with the necessity for accountability and transparency in a democracy. A democracy cannot work if the public is kept in the dark. The public must know what is going on in order to approve or disapprove.

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699 Words | 3 Pages

Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement states “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.” This is important because torture is brutal on the body and mind. The article “Torture’s Terrible Toll” by John McCain is more convincing then the article “The Case for Torture” by Michael Levin because McCain provides more logical reasoning, he adds his own personal experience of being a captured prisoner during the Vietnam War, and he creates an emotional bond with people around the world. Through more logical reasoning McCain Argument is more valid than Levin.

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The Case for Torture Wins Torture is it morally acceptable? Many have debated this argument but I would like to bring up two main conflicting view points from Michael Levin, and Marzieh Ghisai. Michael Levin is a Jewish law professor who wrote The Case for Torture where he advocates where torture is acceptable in some circumstances.

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After finding some torture tactics, it helped me research about the negative effects of torture. In his article, “Torture is a Crime”, Curt Goering listed the negative effects of torture. He argues that torture is illegal, ineffective, immoral and makes those around us unsafe. Curt uses ethos in his piece to back up his main argument. For example, he mentions that in 1984, the UN adopted the Convention against torture and it was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1990.

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515 Words | 3 Pages

In Michael Levin’s “The Case for Torture”, he uses many cases of emotional appeal to persuade the reader that torture is necessary in extreme cases. There are many terms/statements that stick with the reader throughout the essay so that they will have more attachment to what is being said. Levin is particularly leaning to an audience based in the United States because he uses an allusion to reference an event that happened within the states and will better relate to the people that were impacted by it. The emotional appeals used in this essay are used for the purpose of persuading the reader to agree that in extreme instances torture is necessary and the United States should begin considering it as a tactic for future cases of extremity. One major eye catching factor of this essay is the repetitive use of words that imply certain stigmas.

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1579 Words | 7 Pages

Pro-CIA Torture To begin, the US and it’s central intelligence agency, also known as the CIA are torturing captives, and it’s up for debate. The US should allow the CIA to torture its prisoners. It’s a way to get very valuable information from them. The torture techniques leave no marks or traces left behind on the victim. It strikes fear in the to be tortured prisoners so that they make talk before the CIA even lays a finger on them.

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The author believes that the thoughts of enlightened societies are unwise and ascertains that there are situations whereby torture becomes morally mandatory in dealing with terrorists.

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While analyzing “The Torture Myth” and “The Case for Torture”, it is very clear to see the type of rhetorical appeals used to persuade the audience. Anne Applebaum, the writer of “The Torture Myth” --in context of the decision of electing a new Attorney General--would argue that torture is very seldomly effective, violates a person’s rights, and should be outlawed due to the irrational need upon which physical torture is used. On the other hand, Michael Levin strongly argues that physical torture is crucial to solving every imminent danger to civilians. Levin claims that if you don’t physically torture someone, you are being weak and want to allow innocent people to die over something that could have been simply done.

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In medieval times, torture was used to punish criminals, deter crime, and gather information. There were many different types of tortures, most of which were brutal and painful. At the time, torture was deemed necessary to maintain order. Laws were harsh and torture was severe, but effective form of punishment. Despite its effectiveness, torture was often an unfair and extremely cruel punishment, and should have been eliminated in all forms.

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798 Words | 4 Pages

In reality torturing includes physical, mental, or verbal to be exact. Article 5 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Nobody has the right to torture, harm, or humiliate you. Presently, in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel in chapter 4 pg.64 says, “I saw Idek with a young Polish girl, half-naked on a mattress. Idek leapt up turned around and saw me while the girl tried to cover up her breasts.” Also on chapter 4 pg.65 states, “Lie down on it, on your stomach!”

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2016). Using this ethical framework to argue against torture, one needs to consider the violation of the terrorist’s rights. Utilitarians argue that under a scenario where thousands of people are in danger, the well-being of the larger community is more important than neglecting the rights of a single individual (Krauthammer 2005). The simple idea of taking away a person’s autonomy for the sake of others violates rights ethics. To comprehend the violation upon the victim’s rights, it is important to understand how torture feels, “Brian describes his body as having become an object… pain is the central reality; it dominates experience and expression (Wisnewski 2010, 81).”

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"Erroneous Assumptions: Popular Belief in the Effectiveness of Torture Interrogation." Peace & Conflict 13.4 (2007): 429-435. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.

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Most of the time when someone is tortured it is because the interrogators are desperate for Important or valuable information. However, why would real “terrorist” give up valuable information that would expose their cause and what they believe in when they know they are going to die one way or the other. This just goes to show that the “suspected terrorist” are in fact suspected and aren’t real terrorist and shouldn’t be

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955 Words | 4 Pages

Torture is universally prohibited in both national and International law worldwide. It is a fundamental violation of human rights that cannot be derogated from. Essentially, torture is said to constitute any physical and mental act by which severe pain or suffering is intentionally inflicted upon a person ( UNCAT).Torture is mainly used for purposes that are set out to degraded, embarrass, and induce destruction in the person being subjected to torture and those in close relation to the person being tortured .Torture is a mechanism used by those in authoritative positions to preserve themselves in power (Power, 2006:2). Despite the universal prohibition on torture, its use has been widespread throughout history, and especially of late in the wake of September 11 2001 and other recent terrorist atrocities to combat the aforementioned heinous terrorist attacks.

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