The Ethics of Torture

Abstract

Torture is used by government's across the world in order to extract information from unwilling victims.In America's war on terror, which is fought on multiple fronts against a disperse network of terrorist cells, soldiers and trained interrogators use methods of psychological and physical abuse on detainees in the hopes that they will withdraw strategeic information. My paper deals with the complex ethical issues which the torture debate centers around. In order to prevent breaches of human rights it is important to establish a definition of torture which leaves little room for interpretation. Once we reach a satisfactory conception of torture we can identify what is wrong with both institutionalized and non-institutionalized torture as well as define certain , limited parameters within which torture can be morally justifiable given prudential concerns of safety and national security.