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Ethics Case Study 1: Torture Of A Kidnapper

685 Words3 Pages

Hannah Hahn
Professor Cockerham
Contemporary Ethical Issues
24 September 2017
Case Study 1: “Torture of a Kidnapper” In the case “Torture of a Kidnapper,” there are many issues going on. This case is about how a police officer threatened violence to a kidnapper in order to find out if the 11-year-old child was still alive. The officer threatened the violence in the belief that the child might still be alive because the kidnapper had received the ransom money from the boy’s family a few days before (Pierce, 2014). Just with the threat of violence, the kidnapper revealed that the child was dead. This case has caused a great debate between human rights advocates. This case brings up the point of whether or not it is right to threaten violence at all. Human rights activists were shocked that even the thought of violence or torture was brought up. Their view of this case is taking the Kantian deontological ethical theory. Deontological ethics is the “normative theory that morality ought to be …show more content…

If the kidnapper would have given information during the hours of interrogation, resorting to threatening torture would not have happened. Most people with the deontological view of this case, probably just look at the basics of this case and do not research into it. Whenever I see cases like this one, I ask myself how would I feel if it was a relative of mine that was the victim. Would I want the officers to do whatever they can to get information out of the kidnapper? Or would I want the officers to act morally, not threaten torture, and get no information out of kidnapper about where my relative is? Would human rights activists feel the same way about threatening torture if it was a terrorist who attacked their country, instead of a criminal who kidnapped a child? When innocent lives are at stake, threatening torture could be the best and fastest option in getting information when the regular interrogations do not

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