Torture

Ahh yes, one of the hot topics in today's ethics world. Should torture be legal? Well, let's start with a hypothetical situation. A suspect has been arrested and detained. His captures received a tip or some other form of information that leads them to believe that there is a bomb ready to blow in a highly populated city, let's say, Manhatten. Do we torture him? On the chance that the hurting of this one man could save millions? Is his life equal to all those?

Well that brings us into the great ethical discussion of human life. How do you weigh human life? Personally, I don't think it can be weighed. How do you weigh two people? Is one better than the other? Well they have to be different. But how can you decide how many people are worth one person? This will always be an unanswered question. Is it worth it, although unsure if he actually has the information, to perhaps mentally and physicall scar, or even kill, this person to save the lives of many? The easy answer is to say yes, but is that the most ethical?

How ethical is torture? It may seem very ethical in that situation. All the lives saved. But we know that is an extreme example. Torture has popped up in extremely less dangerous situations, and does that make it less ethical? Can torture be ethical at all? Is the humiliation, pain, and suffering of a person ethical? Personally, I don't stand behind torture. Sure interrogation is alright, but I'm not so sure about these new "enhanced techniques" that seem to be becomming more popular.

That brings us the, oh you guessed it, hot topic of torture, water boarding. Is it torture? Well the definition of torture according to the UN any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.(Wikipedia) That seems like a good base to start our arguments with. Let's see, severe pain or suffering whether physical or mental. Personally the act of drowning, even though fake, is pretty distressing mentally. I've always said to anyone that would listen, if someone doesn't think waterboarding is torture, how about we take them outside for a couple hours with some ceram wrap and a host and see what his position is afterwards. Now I have never been waterboarded, so I can only speculate, but my guess is it's not a very comfortable thing to do.

So is water boarding torture? In my book, anything that's not asking questions is torture. Now is torture ethical? That is a question that may be debated for eons. It seems, that in most cases, people think a certain degree of torture is permittable under certain circumstances. Now if that person could be coerced to reveal information on the bomb in Manhatten, I'd probably be fine with it. But if someone had their toenails ripped out until they revealed the hidden location of their base? I'm not so sure. But wait a second.... Why would be at war anyways? Ahhh but that will be a topic for another post, the great topic of war.

~Leonard