Essay Against Torture

Torture has been used for centuries all over the world by many cultures, as either part of their justice systems or just to inflict physical or mental pain. The Romans used torture to punish those who lived contrary to the laws of the empire. The Egyptians, who were among the first to use torture, used methods like prolonged sun exposure to achieve confessions from unfaithful followers. In the world today, torture is something we’d like to believe isn’t part of any country’s strategy for acquiring sensitive information, but in all reality the practice is still wildly used even after its universal prohibition by the UN General Assembly. Torture involves the intentional infliction of physical or mental suffering on a non-consenting, defenseless
Many would argue that there are situations in which torture is morally the best option, emergency “ticking Time-Bomb” scenarios where torture can be justified. Suppose a person has knowledge of an imminent terrorist attack that will kill many people, is in custody with information to stop the attack. Utilitarian’s would suggest that to create the most amount of good, or in this case, the least amount of people die, then torture is morally justifiable. I would argue that the effectiveness of torture in this scenario is the same as in any, still ineffective due to the uncertainties of both the truthfulness of the information given by the prisoner, and the effectiveness of the method used. I could also argue my other two main point apply. I will say in contrast that there may be morally justifiable one off cases of torturing the guilty, but it should never be legalized, even in such cases where we are torturing in self-defense (involving immanent threat). (Miller Sect.4) The inevitable conclusion is that the practice of torture could not be contained under a system of legalized torture warrants and the consequences of its not being contained would be