Pros And Cons Of Torture

A Monstrous Evil

It is time to stop living with a monstrous evil. The United States must forbid torture in order to strengthen its integrity, its virtues as a nation, and its dedication to the rights of individuals. This cannot be conditional lest it allow minor exceptions turn to sweeping exceptions in the future. Our desire to avoid any unnecessary harm of others, the virtues we uphold as a nation, and the rights of the individual make it completely clear that torture cannot remain in any capacity.

Torture is completely unjustifiable. Mayerfeld describes torture as the prime example of what makes something completely wrong: “One person subjects another, held captive and helpless, to terrible pain. Cruelty is combined with cowardice, because

As such, America must commit to maintaining strong virtues. America in the past has often been the one to intervene abroad in order to promote good virtues and peace. Virtues are qualities that describe one as being morally good. Torture, however, is defined as inflicting pain on another person and, as Mayerfeld defines it, torture also manifests itself as “cowardice” in the torturer for attacking a defenseless individual (p.109, Mayerfeld). Despite Krauthammer’s argument that torture could somehow be justified, he too defines torture as something monstrous: “[The conscience] would be troubled because there is no denying the monstrous evil that is any form of torture” (p.8, Krauthammer). Torture goes against the good values America tries to. Passing a law expressly forbidding something that is counter to American interests will then strengthen America’s resolve in remaining

By definition, torture inflicts pain upon its victims against their will. Removing the ability of the person to “choose freely what they will do with their lives” is a violation of human dignity to “use people in ways they do not freely choose” (Santa Clara University). Mayerfeld agrees that torture is expressly forbidden by basic human rights: “… Moral principles are woven into the law, human rights law in particular. International law proclaims an absolute human right not to be tortured, deriving it from the equal dignity of all human beings…” (p.125, Mayerfeld). The very act of torture is intended to remove certain human rights from the individual in order to extract information they would not otherwise provide. Removing individual rights is an affront to human dignity, something in which the United States should not partake. Passing a bill making said actions illegal in the United States would actually be a step toward leading the world onto a more righteous path. Krauthammer, on the other hand, hardly considers the removal of these basic rights when vouching for torture. He argues that the removal of these rights from terrorists is somehow justified because we retrieve valuable information that way, but he fails to mention the violation in human rights. “… Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ‘was able to last between two and 2 1/2 minutes before begging to confess.’ Should we regret having done that? Should we