Is torture ever justified?

The arguments justifying torture usually appeal to extreme circumstances (e.g. interrogating a terrorist who knows the location of a nuclear bomb). In such cases, the torture (and/or death) of people cannot be avoided - the only choice for the interrogator may be who gets tortured: the perpetrator or innocent civilians. Critics suggest torture violates fundamental human values, and that any justifiability in such hypothetical situations is outweighed by the potential for abuse in real ones.

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Agree

Experts In Law

Alan Dershowitz Law Professor

Agree

My basic point, though, is we should never under any circumstances allow low-level people to administer torture. If torture is going to be administered as a last resort in the ticking-bomb case, to save enormous numbers of lives, it ought to be done openly, with accountability, with approval by the president of the United States or by a Supreme Court justice.

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04 Mar 2003 Source

Disagree

Experts In Ethics

Henry Shue Philosophy Professor

Mostly Disagree

Justifications for torture thrive in fantasy. ... We imagine that the person we hold knows exactly what we need to know-not out-of-date information overtaken by events, [and] that the person will reveal exactly what we need-not simply vomit and die, or descend into a psychotic state, ... [and] that the information that will be revealed will be sufficient to prevent the terrible catastrophe-not that the catastrophe will simply be re-scheduled for a different time or place.

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01 Jun 2003 Source

Michael Davis Philosophy Professor

Disagree

Since Henry Shue’s classic 1978 paper on torture, the “Ticking Bomb Case” has seemed to demonstrate that torture is morally justified in some moral emergencies (even if not as an institution). After presenting an analysis of torture as such and an explanation of why it, and anything much like it, is morally wrong, I argue that the ticking-bomb case demonstrates nothing at all — for at least three reasons.

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01 Jan 2005 Source

Experts In Politics

Barack Obama United States President

Disagree

I was clear throughout this campaign and was clear throughout this transition that under my administration the United States does not torture. ... We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals.

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09 Jan 2009 Source

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Kiefer Sutherland Actor

Mostly Disagree

I believe in the constitution of the United States. I believe in due process. I do not believe in torture. But in the context of our show, these are unbelievably extreme events that within matters of hours, the entire place will be gone. It's a fantasy about that and those are the devices that we use in the fantasy.

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02 Aug 2007 Source

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1 Point the27th 09 May 2010 Stance on Question: Disagree

I'm with Shue on this -- and in fact got my position from Shue.

I would accept a risk of death if it meant the US would maintain some basic moral principles. Most people I know would as well.

Is torture ever justified?

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