Preview

Why Is Torture Unethical

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
254 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Is Torture Unethical
A soldier has an obligation to protect their country. If this is their top obligation, then under deontology torture can be justified. Some, however, may have an obligation to God. If this obligation out ranks the first then deontology would say that torture is not justified.
Categorical imperative would not be followed by all people. There are people willing to commit torture, but would not want others committing torture. On the other hand, some people believe torture is wrong all around. They would follow categorical imperative.
Rational egoism can justify torture. If someone's family is endangered and the only way to save them is to torture a terrorist, then it is in the person’s best interest to torture them. For their end happiness they may have to commit torture.
…show more content…
The ban on forbidden curses was only lifted during the wars with Voldemort. If a witch or wizard uses the forbidden spells they are sent to Azkaban.
I do not believe that torture is really a good device for gathering information. Most people will say anything to stop torture, including lies. Police have caused innocent people to say they are guilty just by pressuring them. Why would torture be any different? Torture may get people to talk, but that does not mean it is the truth. I do not morally think torture is ok. Torture for the most part causes more suffering than it

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Getting your teeth pulled and fingers snapped for not letting the enemy know where the rest of your brigade is hiding, is a common torture tactic. In most cases you just want the pain to stop, so you give false information. This is why I feel ,no, torture should not be a tactic to retrieve information and should be abolished in this country. In the essay The Torture Myth written by Anne Applebaum, torture is discussed and evaluated by the writer. Applebaum focuses on whether torture is a good vice to gain information from a person and it is insinuated that she does not, based on her arguments in the essay. I too believe torture is not a humane nor moral way to obtain truthful information.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At some point everyone has heard of torture. It could have been in a movie or on the news, but they have heard of it. In this day and age, people would like to have believed it was all behind us in the past. Then 9/11 happened, everyone’s lives were changed with one simple act of cruelty. Before 9/11 hit the U.S. in a wave of pain, panic, and anger, our viewpoints on torture would probably have been less likely that it should be allowed. The decision to torture people who are suspected of being part of terrorist groups has always been decided by the government, for the simple reason that it is required to keep us safe from harm. Some people believe that torture is cruel, unsightly and just inhumane. On the other hand there are people who see it the same way but also believe it could be necessary in extreme circumstances. We’re going to look at two different points of torture: When it is acceptable and when it is not acceptable.…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Annotated bibliography

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Very brief summary: The article ‘Using torture is illegal and never justified’ argues against torture by mainly focusing on the fact that the information gained from torture is highly unreliable because the prisoner could be lying to get the torture to stop. Who makes the decisions is also called into question.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry Shue begins his article discussing torture with constraints which allows the victim to “surrender” and comply with the demands of the torturer. According to the Constraint of Possible Compliance (CPC), “the victim of torture must have available an act of compliance which, if performed, will end the torture” (Shue 427). With the aim of interrogational torture being to extract information from a person with holding it, this torture appears to satisfy the constraint of possible compliance, since it offers an escape, in the form of providing the information wanted by the torturers, which affords some protection against further assault. In practice there are evidently only a few pure cases of interrogational torture. For the most dominant type of torture that occurs today is considered to be terroristic. Terroristic torture is meant to put fear in not only the victim, but also all those who oppose that government. The victim’s suffering is being used as a means to end over which the victim has no control over.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tragedy In Torture

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Simply relying on instincts or “gut feelings” as a way to solve crime or to come to any conclusion at all, gives the authority figures more control, and possibly a greater sense of superiority. When a torturer jumps to such conclusions with little or no evidence there may be an intensified need for their theories be correct to avoid humiliation among peers. It may be the case that there mind perceives the situation as them being the…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When it comes to the topic of torture, most of us will readily agree that torturing someone in order to get information is not the answer. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of how guilty a person is, and what should be done in the case of a bombing. On the one hand, people argue that torture is unconstitutional and should not be practiced because it questions a person’s morality and what they are willing to do in order to get results. On the other hand, however, others argue that we should allow torture because it is more just than allowing thousands of innocents to die because we didn’t want to question a single person. I have mixed feelings on the topic. While I recognize that our actions may be for the greater good, we cannot allow ourselves to lose our morality because of it. I do not believe that a person should be tortured for information unless it is under specific circumstances. What I mean by this is that people should not torture someone unless that person is obviously guilty or it is…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many questions relating to the use of torture against any person whatsoever. As such, there are different perspectives on the ethics of its usage as well. While some believe that the use of torture becomes necessary at times, others believe that whatever the circumstances are, torture can never be justified. Some very pertinent issues related to the use of torture are, “Suppose a child has been kidnapped and a person has been suspected of committing the crime. Is it justifiable to torture that person in order to try to extract information from him about the child? Now suppose the person would not react at all if he is subjected to torture but there is a chance that he would divulge information if his child of the similar age as the…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Torture Ok?

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Also, in the case of torture, torture should not be used as punishment. It should only be used to prevent something from happening. The function of using this argument is not to bring anyone back that was a victim or harmed, but rather to get a truthful confession or to prevent that person from causing harm to others.…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Con Torture

    • 2313 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Torture is never justified because it defies moral values of both humans and the United States. Humans have the obligation to “respect the honor and dignity of other human beings” (Fried), even if that respect and dignity is not returned. Once tactics such as torture are resorted to, which compromise the dignity of another human, the dignity of the person performing that act is also compromised (Fried). There are some things, such as torture, that should never be done simply because the right to “call ourselves decent human beings” depends on not doing them (Jacoby). If humans sink to the lowest level that is torture, the essential abilities to feel empathy, respect, and honor are lost, all core parts of humanity that separate man from all other animals. As a country, the United States also has distinct morals that hold it above resorting to torture.…

    • 2313 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Essay About Torture

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I think if the person is being tortured and has done something wrong, has endangered many innocent lives or is directly involved with a heinous crime, then it would be rational to use torture. However, I am a little skeptical if the person being tortured will become delusional and say something incorrect. Nevertheless, torture is never moral. Moreover, if people torture others purely for their own benefit, then that is treating humans as objects, “mere means" to an end (Bailey). Torture may be rational in some cases, however, it is never morally justifiable, as it is inflicting emotional and physical harm and treating humans as…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This paper addresses one of the most abiding and heated controversies surrounding the topic of torture and morality. Put simply, this controversy concerns the issue of whether under extreme and exceptional circumstances, a government agency should be legally permitted to use torture as a means of punishment or extracting information. According to Oxford Dictionary, torture is defined as “The action of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or in order to force them to do or say something”.…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Torture Is Wrong

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As a matter of fact, the Association for the Prevention of Torture points out, “Further, using torture ourselves allows other countries to more easily justifying using torture against our own soldiers and nationals” ("Defusing the Ticking Bomb Scenario" 845). If tormenting captured victims to get further intelligence, then our country is not doing nothing but setting a bad example for the nations around the world. Much less, more innocents might become victims of torture because of a pure excuse of the government wanting to keep the people safe. Even if any of attackers was captured and tortured for information, surely they have already had everything planned to put them to action. Innocents would die of we were to threat and torture or even kill the person captured.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the civilian criminal justice field there is evidence to show that coercive techniques that are less severe than torture still lead to false confessions. DNA analysis of innocent wrongly convicted criminals show that false confessions are a major problem in wrongful convictions, accounting for 24% to be correct (Costanzo & Gerrity 2009). A study conducted by Drizin and Leo identified 125 false confessions over a thirty year period. This study did not include un-proven false confessions, meaning the number of false confessions over this time period are much higher. It goes to show the higher of coercion used by law enforcement increases the likelihood of a false confession. Even with the hard data on false confessions, I still believe these tactics should be used in interrogating suspects. Because the Innocence Project have proven techniques to reduce the number of false confessions in using coercive…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Americans, as a nation founded on the basis of fundamental human rights, and equality for all, torture is an unacceptable and inexcusable act that degrades us as a nation and as individuals. It debases us and makes us scarcely better than those we condemn. Just as a rose by any other name will smell just as sweet, torture by any other name remains just as deplorable.…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays