Introduction Torture involves deliberately inflicting physical or mental pain on a person without legal cause. This includes threats to family members and loved ones.
Before you object that there can't ever be a legal cause for inflicting pain, consider painful medical treatments, soldiers wounded in a legally declared war, or contestants in a boxing match. Torture has been used as a punishment, to intimidate or control people, to get information or just to gratify sadistic impulses.
Governments have used torture to keep themselves in power, to enforce their particular political philosophy, to remove opposition and to implement particular policies.
Torture is wrong Torture is regarded as wrong for several reasons (expanded later in this section):
•It's cruel •It treats people as means rather than ends •It is not an effective way of obtaining information Since the middle of the last century torture has generally been regarded as wrong, so wrong in fact that the UN Convention Against Torture allows no exceptions, even in circumstances such as war or while fighting terrorism.
British law bans torture and the UK is one of the signatories to the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The Foreign Office web site says "Torture is one of the most abhorrent violations of human rights and human dignity," and adds
"The Government's position on torture has always been very clear. We unreservedly condemn its use as a matter of fundamental principle. The UK is committed to combating torture globally, and continues to implement an active campaign to help eradicate it." A poll in 2006 showed that 72% of Britons oppose torture in any circumstances – even where its use would save lives. Torture and other inhumane acts causing severe pain or suffering, or serious injury to the body or to mental or physical health are also prohibited under international criminal law and can amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Evidence obtained through torture is not admissible in British courts, although it is acceptable for police or security forces to act on information obtained by torture.
Torture is still widespread Torture is still widely practised in the world - in 1996 it was said that torture was used, formally or informally, in one country out of every three. Amnesty International states that there were reports of torture or ill-treatment by state officials in more than 150 countries on the period 1997 to mid 2000.
The ethical problem of torture In recent decades the absolute wrongness of torture has begun to be questioned, following repeated terrorist acts and the fear that terrorists have access to weapons of mass destruction. In this context some people argue that torture, while wrong, is the lesser of two evils, and that it should be allowed if it is the only way to prevent a greater wrong. For example, they say, it might be OK to torture a person to get information that would enable the authorities to prevent a bombing. Others argue that it is a 'moral absolute' that torture is always wrong, and so can never be justified by any form of ethical 'cost-benefit analysis'.
History For much of history torture was used quite commonly, and without huge outcry. Civilisations such as the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans all used torture. Even the Church regarded it as an acceptable part of their armoury. Torture was used as part of many legal systems in the West until the early 19th century.
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