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Kantian Duty-Based Ethics Of Torture

586 Words3 Pages

Torture is when an individual or group of individuals cause harm, severe pain on someone while they force the person to speak or do something unwillingly. However, in America, individuals are protected by torture, because of the Bill of Rights. According to Luban, (2007) “Our Bill of Rights forbids cruel and unusual punishment, and that has come to include all forms of corporal punishment except prison and death by methods purr-ported to be painless” (p. 249). Unfortunately, there are many horror stories throughout history that has barbaric and terrible act upon people, because there were people at times who justified torture during certain situations. In such situation as a terrorist attack, an individual may feel that the torture would be justified in order to stop the attack in order to save millions or thousands of lives, may be a justified torture. Overall, it would depend on the individual’s stance on the subject that would include their ideology, values, and morals.
Utilitarianism is when the best outcome is maximum by the number of people. According to Holmes (2007), “the utilitarian is concerned with maximizing the benefits for the maximum number of people” (pg. 43). This viewpoint, utilitarian would be able to justify torture in order to save the lives that could …show more content…

The main focus would be on the whether a duty or moral law was fulfilled during the situation. This principle would allow someone to follow the orders of someone in a high command position, or authority role. The torture of this individual would be justified in this situation. In addition, virtue ethics focuses on individuals’ moral character and is based on person based and not on action based. An example would be a person has moral disposition, very civic oriented, and patriotic then the torture would be justified based on love for their country and

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Many people might think that torture is cruel, unacceptable and it does not show humanity. In contrast, Michael Levin says that implementing torture is needed to prevent future evil acts. In “The Case for Torture”, Michael Levin also makes it clear that there are situations in which torture is not merely acceptable but morally necessary. Levin argues that implementing torture to save people lives is morally right and reasonable. Levin’s purpose of his text is to let people know that there are times when torture becomes an option to save and protect innocent lives.

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Michael Levin The Case For Torture Summary

581 Words | 3 Pages

Although torturing is considered wrong by many people today, I agree with Michael Levin that torture should be an option in certain situations because it could save the lives of American people. Levin says in his article “Torturing a terrorist unconstitutional? Probably. But millions of lives surely outweigh constitutionality (Levin 605).”

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Torture is never justified, it doesn’t matter who is being tortured or what information may be discovered. In his book, Slahi gives the reader a grim picture of what prisoners held at Guantanamo are subjected to 24 hours a day. Detainees are tortured in and out of interrogation and the methods that are used vary. For instance, during one interrogation Slahi was sexually assaulted by two female personnel saying they were going to teach him about “great American sex.” (Slahi, P. 230)

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Knowledge can be compared to a torch, or fire. Fire brings light and can help guide us through darkness. At the same time, fire, when not used wisely or contained, can lead to destruction. Similarly, the human species can use knowledge to further advance us, or we could let it tear us down. This is a common theme in the novels

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How effective can torture be if terrorists are already willing to give up their lives? In the article, “The Case for Torture” Michael Levin claims that “there are situations in which torture is not merely permissible but morally mandatory.” What is torture? Torture, by definition, is a knowing and intentional act of inflicting severe pain on someone to force them to do or say something. Levin describes how torture is the only way to prevent and extract information from terrorists.

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1854 Words | 8 Pages

Torture is mainly seen as morally wrong. The Los Angeles Times wrote about what the readers think about torture. In the article Torture is wrong: Readers agree, even if most Americans might not, discusses the opinions of their readers on how morally wrong torture can be even if it’s to a terrorist. One of the responses on the Los Angeles Times was from Martin Wauson of Westminster saying, “Injuring or killing an informant defeats the purpose of interrogation” (Los Angeles Times). The point of interrogating a terrorist is to gain information on what ever the problem may be.

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In this movie we have dealt a very important issue that threatened the lives of millions in the United States. Torture is regarded as wrong for many reasons. If we look to it from another point of view we can conclude that: Torturing the terrorist is unethical and can't be justified, but it can be understood, and it can be forgiven. Torturing the terrorist is unethical, but in this circumstance it is the 'right thing to do'.  Governments have used torture to keep themselves in power, to enforce their particular political philosophy, to remove opposition and to implement particular policies.

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If torture can allow us to gain information that can save the lives of people can the use of it be justified? Can others allow people to be beaten, starved and locked up in order to gain information and say that it was for a good cause? According to ABC News and the Washington Post, “59 percent of Americans say the torture of suspected terrorists was justified, but 58 percent say torture is often or sometimes justified, as a general matter” (Bouie). As shown above, a great deal of people agree with the use of torture and say that it can be justified, but how is the process of abusing people ok? Likewise, in the book 1984 written by George Orwell torture is used by the government in order to acquire information.

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There have been endless debates for view for and against the use of torture to gather intelligence to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. So is the use of torture ever ethical? To help determine, let’s take a look at the views of two well-known philosophers John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant. Each of these philosophers had strong opinions and stances of

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In conclusion, torture can be effective if used used correctly. It can be used to gain very valuable information to save lives as long as the tactics are not fatal. Lots of people have varying opinions on the matter but whatever is effective or counter-effective is based solely on it’s purpose and the way it is

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It is the ultimate violation of another human being's basic human rights. Thus torture is unacceptable in any case. Instead, as a nation we have to set a role model as humanity and respect everyone's equal

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Some believe that torture should be indefinitely banned worldwide and others believe the ends justify the means as in that torture is the way to go because in the end we get what we need.

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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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