Introduction
Justice Department in the US advocated for the use of torture against al Qaeda terrorists; following Bush’s declaration of war on terror. The use of torture was defended with proponents arguing that it was geared towards the protection and prevention of further attacks on Americans after the 9/11 incident, (Priest and Smith, 2004). However, the use of torture as a form of gathering intelligence information should be condemned at all costs.
Is its simple definition, torture refers to the infliction of pain to an individual as a means of interrogation. Torture should be criticized because it is inhuman and immoral, it has led to institutional corruption where it has been practiced, and that evidence emanating from torture cannot be relied on. International organizations for instance Amnesty International have criticized the use of torture because it is unethical and violates human rights.
Justification of the use of Torture
Proponents of the use of torture in interrogation argue that pain can be used to determine guilt since it induces confession. This is not always the case as perceived because guilt is independent of physical pain one may be subjected to during torture. Suffering can alter perceived guilt in two aspects according to psychological theories. Firstly, the moral typecasting hypothesis reasons out that pain can lead to an eventual inference of innocence. Also, cognitive dissonance theory asserts that torture propagates presumption of guilt; hence, the more pain a suspect suffers the guiltier he/she will appear.
In another perspective, interrogators who use torture may sympathize with a suspect not because he/she is innocent but because of the magnitude of pain, a torture victim may be in. Gross violation of human rights of common citizens and the secrecy of political handling of torture issues has left a lot to be desired about the under dealings of torture. International law prohibits torture as it is both degrading and inhuman. However, there has been a violation of international law even by United Nation forces; seriously raising concerns of the applicability of International Humanitarian Law; IHL (Fischer, McDonald and Asser Instituut, 1998).
Reasons against Use of Torture
Reasons behind the proposals to make torture legal are either not persuasive enough or lack satisfactory answers. The limits of suspicion and expected repercussions of making torture legal are difficult to attain because there is no single torture process that is mentally or physically harmless.
Therefore, legalization of torture is only a pipe dream and any attempts to give procedural judicial guidelines are grossly subjected to abuse. Also, allowable torture techniques will likely be abused given a wide variation of victims that may be subjected to torture at varying proportions. The effect will be none conforming to the accepted medical practices.
Some lies result from torture. Torture victims may be subjected to extreme pain that would make him/her accept any charges pressed against him/her regardless of whether the allegations are true or false. An illustration of this argument is the case of Russia where Stalin tortured many of his political opponents to accept deeds they were not responsible for. Stalin violated both state and international laws. Another consequence of Stalin’s action is that such an action may lead to further destruction as the tortured victims may regroup and plan other destructions in protest against an administration.
Torture as a form of interrogation is wrong because of the consequential reasons that it has. Whenever a torturous interrogation is used, there is a likelihood of repeating it in the future as a form of the judicial process in society. Finally, the use of torture damages the positive image of the institutions that use it as an interrogation procedure. There is the likelihood of sprawling internal dissent that tarnishes the integrity of our legal institutions. Lost integrity in turn provides an avenue of potential propaganda in the legal system.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, therefore, torture is an issue that affects society as seen from the discussion above. It is both a local and international matter that has to be addressed regarding the gross violation of acceptable international law that protects human rights. As an ethical issue in society, torture must completely be withdrawn as an interrogation procedure to restore both local international harmonies.
Reference List
Fischer, H., Avril McDonald, A. & T.M.C. (1998). “Asser Instituut.” Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law: 2003. New Jersey: Cambridge University Press.
Priest, D. & Smith, J. “Memo offered justification for use of torture.” Washington Post Staff Writers, 2004. Web.