June 15, 2009

Torture - is it Moral?

John Adams, one of the US founding fathers, said: Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Last week, I talked about a religious majority approving torture in certain cases, according to a survey. I believe that religion and morality are closely related, and I think the topic of morality with respect to torture --especially human torture-- is a very important discussion for our nation.

But first, we briefly need to define what torture is/isn't. Personally, I'm not talking about mere "discomfort". Some definitions include:
  • anguish: extreme mental distress
  • unbearable physical pain
  • agony: intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain
  • torment: torment emotionally or mentally (source)
Even just those words make me start to feel queasy inside. But I also know that a picture can speak a thousands words. So in case of any doubt, I have linked to a web page that shows several photos of torture victims in a US detention facility in Baghdad, Iraq. (WARNING: very graphic photographs) [Leaked Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos here] ** Of course, their mental scars are not so easily photographed.

There are hundreds of detainees being held in places around the world: Guantanamo Bay (aka "Gitmo"), Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and others. The vast majority of them (95% maybe?) have never been charged for anything, let alone being tried in a court of law or found guilty. (This fact quickly blurs into the topic of the legality of torture, which I'll blog about later.) But rest assured that many, many innocent --"until proven guilty", right?-- people were tortured by US policies and employees. See the latest story: Rather interviews Boumediene. Here's another sourced article. And this torture scene hasn't stopped yet.

Not quite "moral" conduct, wouldn't you agree?

And what about the guilty ones? Does there still exist a moral argument that could justify the guilty to be inflicted with more than a punitive ruling of repayment, incarceration, detention, rehabilitation, or even death? In fact, the death sentence seems to be the most extreme punishment by our US federal and military justice system -- both past and present, terrorist or otherwise.

But isn't torture even worse than death?

I wonder if anyone sees an argument left to defend the idea that torturing anyone --innocent or guilty-- is remotely ethical or moral?

** Note also the big controversy about Obama rescinding his promise to release more photographs of alleged torturing by US authorities.

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