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Pros And Cons Of Torture

902 Words4 Pages

Morgan Poston
Professor Wilson
PHI 220 01 DT Ethics
20 November, 2015
We Tortured Some Folks…. Is it morally right to torture people? In a recent poll taken in over a half dozen countries it was found that there was a large amount of support for “justified torture” (Petersen). What this means is that a large portion of the worlds countries believe torture is acceptable in extreme situations. The ticking time bomb scenario is one of the most used arguments for torture (McCoy). Torture one person to save the lives of thousands? Or don’t torture the person, and thousands die. I would argue against the torture, but for now let’s look at what famous philosopher Jeremy Bentham might do. To begin with Bentham was an act-utilitarian (Russ, “Fundamentals of Ethics”). Which means he believes in bringing about the maximum amount of pleasure to everyone as whole. The idea is to find out how much pain or pleasure a situation causes and the extent at which it reaches, this is done with something called Hedonic calculus (Russ, “Ethical Life”). This is …show more content…

The only known instance that this happened and supposedly was averted due to torture was in Manila in 1995 when Abdul Hakim Murad was apprehended and then tortured (McCoy). This turned out to be totally fabricated, and it was later revealed that they learned all the information necessary within minutes of seizing him and his laptop, which coincidently had the entire plot for the bombing on it (McCoy). This man was held for 67 days, beaten repeatedly, and it’s reported that they put cigarettes out on his genitals (McCoy). For me this points out the obvious issue for abusing the power given to someone who is allowed to torture people. If you allow someone to commit harm to someone else or even worse, pay them to do it, they will likely become good at it. This could ruin their sense of morality. Then how can you trust them to the exact thing you wanted them to

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Alan Dershowitz begins his article “ Should the Ticking Bomb Terrorist Be Tortured” by questioning whether one person can be tortured to save the lives of many others. Dershowitz displays both sides of the argument before shifting the question. Dershowitz asserts that the question is not if torture should be used on a ticking bomb terrorist, rather the question is whether the torture is done openly under a legal framework or secretly and illegally. He then simplifies the conflict to the prioritization of values. While the argument that Dershowitz constructs seems to leave very little room for disagreement, there are ways in which to collapse his entire premise.

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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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Torture Explanation The Case for Torture is an article written by Michael Levin in which he discusses why torture should be used by the American government. He makes his case by stating highly unlikely hypothetical situations in which torture would be useful. I agree with the majority of the actual reasonable points that Levin uses in the article.

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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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Will torture ever be acceptable? If there is a critical risk of loss of innocent lives, should torture be a way of saving them? Michael Levin conveys this question to our consideration in a pursuit to sway our viewpoint in his field of view. In this thoroughly written essay, Levin uses various illustrations to show how torture should be considered and would benefit us in the future.

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