Should Torture Be Acceptable Essay

Should torture be acceptable in our society seems to be the day old question. First, one must know what torture actually is; torture is the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. Torture is wrong and should not be acceptable in our society because it is ineffective, morally wrong, and it violates the rights of human dignity of the victim. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.” Article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 says, “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of threat, may be inflicted on a person.
Torture is quite ineffective and should not be used in the interrogation room. It may well produce inaccurate information, because while under torture the victim’s main goal is to stop the pain, he or she will say anything to stop the pain regardless of if it’s the truth or not. Because of the knowledge of this, interrogators can never be quite sure if what the victim is saying is the actual truth. He will continue torturing the victim and nothing will ever be solved. History offers no modern examples of the effectiveness of harsh interrogation techniques. There are many other ways of interrogation that are available and more effective. Studies have also shown that torture is a “slippery slope” in that each act of torture makes it easier to accept the use of torture in the future. Torture violates the rights of human dignity of the victim. We all as humans have rights and we should all be respected. Torture treats the victim as a “thing” and not as a person with values. It uses the victim’s body as a tool to get information out of them or to make others feel better. Torture dehumanizes people by treating them as pawns to be manipulated through their pain. It violates the human’s legal right to remain silent when