The Pros And Cons Of Torture

This type of situation has been repeated in history with one example being the War Crime Trials for the Nazi soldiers after the Holocaust. In that instance, since people’s lives were lost, these Nazi officials were given the death penalty because people believed they should receive the same type of punishment for their actions. In this hypothetical example, no deaths were lost, but there was torture and terror involved which some people argue that torture is far worse than just being given the death penalty. So is being tortured actually worse than just being given the death penalty? The importance of considering this question is that if torture is worse than the death penalty then the death penalty would be a lesser punishment and any punishment “above or below what would be acceptable for the crime committed would be immoral because it does not
If torture is used in retaliation and as an “eye to eye” concept, then torture would be an unethical way of punishing someone (Guidebook). For this example, I would argue that torture is being used to provide the members with the realization for their actions, so torture is an unethical way of punishment. Also, torture is not a replacement for the death penalty, so it is not saving an individual’s life because in the guidebook it states that if “torture is vengeful and not being used to protect innocent lives, then it is not technically a moral reason for punishing someone” (Guidebook). Without protecting innocent lives, torture cannot be considered an ethical reason for punishing someone, so I would argue that the type of punishment that should be used is an elongated amount of jail time. Incarceration meets all the requirements for being a moral type of punishment because it doesn't cause mental harm that torture would and incarcerating the members would not be a retaliating