Jump to comment:
- Page navigation anchor for Does torture work?Does torture work?
Thank you for your response: you make a rational ethical argument around balancing the needs of the many against the rights of the few. However the thrust of my argument - and that of the CIA themselves (and indeed that of Napoleon Bonaparte long before the rise of Jihad) is that torture does not deliver useful information.
Show More
There is no evidence to support the use of torture in the ticking bomb scenario, and indeed UNCAT makes it very clear that there are no circumstances, none at all, in which state parties are able to excuse it.
You mentioned Cicero. He was a man who executed five conspirators without due process of law so I am not sure that his views on morality have the weight of great statesmanship - but his point - that the end may justify the means for the good of humanity - might be valid if torturing people had any '24'-like prospect of being the only (or the least harmful) way to save the innocent, but it doesn't. In fact overwhelming evidence, including that cited in my article, supports the opposite view, that torture not only fails in its apparent intent of advancing the greater good (that is, greater good from the perspective of the torturer) but that it damages not only the tortured but also the torturer, society and the state itself. Indeed it does appear that Mr Pompeo and others may have persuaded Trump of exactly this view, since the executive draft order seems not to have been followed through.
...Competing Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for Does torture work? Donald Trump and the CIADoes torture work? Donald Trump and the CIAThis paper certainly makes one wonder if torture is ever justified. While torture is never morally justifiable, one needs to balance this view on torture with Cicero’s dictum ‘salus populi suprema lex esto’ (let the safety or health of the people be the supreme law).Torture has two aspects – the curtailment of autonomy and the infliction of mental and / or physical suffering. In this case torture is for the purpose obtaining vital information that may be used by a state for the greater good. The ‘ticking bomb’ scenario is a case in point.How then does one translate morality into the realpolitk of safety of the public? Some writers maintain that torture, with the express purpose of breaking a person’s will so as to obtain vital information which protects citizens, needs to be sanctioned by law.The 1984 UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment makes a distinction between torture and inhuman and / or degrading treatment. While both are morally offensive and indefensible it could be argued that a state has or must have recourse to some forms of coercion in the interest of public safety. This may precipitate a slippery slope but checks and balances provided by the separation of executive and legislature provides the state with the necessary safeguards.To cla...Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.