The reasons why torture is wrong can be divided into reasons of pure principle and reasons based on the bad consequences of torture.
Why is torture wrong?
Reasons of principle
Why is torture wrong?
The reasons why torture is wrong can be divided into reasons of pure principle and reasons based on the bad consequences of torture. Both sorts of reason are valid.
Reasons of principle
- Torture treats the victim as a means to an end and not an end in themselves
- it treats the victim as a 'thing', not as a person with all the value that we associate with persons
- torturers often explicitly dehumanise their victims to make it easier to torture them
- it uses the physical body of the victim not as a component part of a person of value, but as a tool to achieve the aims of the torturer
[Torture] dehumanizes people by treating them as pawns to be manipulated through their pain.
Kenneth Roth, Getting Away with Torture, Global Governance, 2005
- Torture is sometimes used to destroy the autonomy of the victim
- some societies have used torture to suppress independent thought and convert people to 'right-thinking'. The individual is tortured until they abandon their own views and beliefs and adopt those of the torturers. The victim ceases to be an 'end in themselves' but becomes just another means to support the regime of the torturer
- Torture violates the rights and human dignity of the victim, including
- the legal right to remain silent when questioned
Consequentialist reasons
Consequentialist reasons why torture is wrong
- Torture is a slippery slope - each act of torture makes it easier to accept the use of torture in the future
- Torture is an ineffective interrogation tool
- It may well produce false information because under torture a prisoner will eventually say anything to stop the pain - regardless of whether it is true
- Because of this the interrogator can never be 'sure' that they are getting the truth and will never know when to stop
- More effective methods of interrogation that don't involve torture are available
- If a suspect is tortured it may be impossible to prosecute them successfully - British common law excludes involuntary statements or confessions on the ground that such evidence is inherently unreliable
- Torture damages the humanity of the torturers
- Those who carry out torture are likely to become brutalised by their acts, and desensitised to humanity
- The more acts of torture a person carries out, the more likely they are to carry out torture
- Torture damages the institution that carries it out
- It damages the reputation and moral authority of the institution
- Its use is likely to produce internal dissent and so damage the integrity of the institution
- Using torture provides 'the enemy' with something they can exploit for propaganda
History offers no modern examples of the strategic effectiveness of harsh interrogation techniques, but it is replete with examples of the negative strategic effects such techniques have on the counterinsurgency force.
Lou Dimarco, Losing the Moral Compass: Torture and Guerre Revolutionnaire in the Algerian War, Parameters, 2006
- State-approved torture is bad for the state
The use of torture is dishonourable. It corrupts and degrades the state which uses it and the legal system which accepts it
Lord Hoffmann, British judge
When the state itself beats and extorts, it can no longer be said to rest on foundations of morality and justice, but rather on force.
Mordecai Kremnitzer quoted in Marcy Strauss, Torture, New York Law School Law Review, 2004
While the rest of the world is expected to abide by the UN Convention against Torture, for example, the Americans evaluate international law on the basis of whether it serves their interests.
Excesses of Sex and Violence, Der Spiegel, May 2004
- Torture can create or strengthen opposition
The interrogations, torture and socialization of prison turned most of the men rounded up by Mubarak into hardened militants, thirsty for revenge: they would become the foot soldiers of terrorism
Gilles Kepel, The War for Muslim Minds, 2004
Not only will torture create a dedicated core of anti-American jihadists, their stories will lose us the "hearts and minds" campaign with the larger Muslim population.
Jeannie L. Johnson, Exploiting Weakness in the Far Enemy Ideology, Strategic Insights, 2005
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