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The Pros And Cons Of Torture

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Should Torture Be Tolerated? Is causing someone extreme measures of pain and suffering ever justified? To traumatize, humiliate and dehumanize a defenseless, often innocent human being? Any average sane person would almost always answer “no” to these questions, and yet some believe that it should be allowed because of an unrealistic scenario, the ticking bomb. As well as the government, persuading the public to accept such practices such as torture, in times of panic. Torture is an inhumane act that shouldn’t be tolerated and should be banned from any occasion not only because it’s bad, but also because it is immoral.
The article, In Defense of the Absolute Prohibition of Torture, explains the flaws of the “ticking bomb” scenario. Jamie Mayerfeld states “People tend to over look the realness and exaggerate on the effectiveness of torture.” When people come to think of a scenario like the ticking bomb, they see thousands of lives being lost and believe that sacrificing one for thousands would be acceptable. But there are many flaws in the ticking bomb scenario. For instance, Bob Brecher states that “any bomb planter will have take care to leave as little time as possible between planting the bomb and it’s exploding.” This leaves little to no time to find the perpetrator and have time to interrogate …show more content…

They can’t come close as to understand why a person would do such things. If people react this way on a daily basis, why should torture be any different and accepted? Someone may argue that it’s different because the people that are shown are TV are innocent, but so are the people that are being held against their will be the government. Like stated before there were five thousand foreign nationals suspected of being terrorists, only three were charged with terrorism related acts, and two of those three were

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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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1694 Words | 7 Pages

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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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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313 Words | 2 Pages

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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1050 Words | 5 Pages

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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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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925 Words | 4 Pages

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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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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1371 Words | 6 Pages

There are pieces of this method that are useful, but it is evident that it is also used for ill intentions such as to degrade, discipline, and scapegoat individuals who are simply assumed to be guilty of terrorism without trial. The reemergence of third degree tactics was prompted by a national outcry in the midst of the September 11th attacks and by the pursuit of science, which makes torture seem legitimate and calm the public's moral outcry. Proponents of torture in interrogation create convincing illusions with their “ends-justify-the-means” logic that draws on the supposed respectability of science, their beliefs in the psychology, claims that modern torture causes few serious injuries, and corrupted interpretations of law. The clandestine nature of so called “enhanced” interrogation has created inescapable gaps in knowledge that keep the public from knowing the whole

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1221 Words | 5 Pages

However openly allowing torture in any way will normalize its use. While Dershowitz’s proposal for warranted torture may seem appropriate in the case of the ticking bomb terrorist, the proposal is undermined by many moral and legal issues. It is easier for government officials to justify using torture in such extreme cases, but the reasons for not using torture outweigh its justifications. Dershowitz’s suggestion assumes that under a system of torture warrants that officials will refrain from torture if the warrant is rejected. There is no way to regulate interrogators and it is unlikely that a warrant will prevent interrogators from breaking the rules.

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1251 Words | 6 Pages

Dershowitz in “The Case for Torture Warrants”, the choice for using torture should be made with visibility and accountability, either by a judicial officer or by the President of the United States. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, the FBI officials made it publicly known that they were not able to obtain information from suspected terrorists conventionally, which caught many American’s attention. Many debated the case for torture among suspects who have access to deadly information after these attacks. This was also debated in Israel, when the Israeli Supreme Court outlawed all use of torture by law enforcement even though it's officials got suspects to open their mouths after suffering torture. Dershowitz believes that a torture warrant is a plausible solution to this nation wide debate.

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759 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout history, torture has been practice as a way of punishment and method to get information. Many countries and cultures have included this strategy in their justice system. In fact, many people nowadays are against this technic. But those people are obsoletely wrong. In 1984, the United Nations General assembly adopted this topic to be in consideration.

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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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1005 Words | 5 Pages

In Defense of Torture “Because It Is Wrong:” A Meditation on Torture Rules Should Govern Torture, Dershowitz Says What ethical arguments are being made? Torture is okay to use. Torture is wrong. Torture should be okay in some circumstances

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