In one of my earlier posts I wrote about creating a unit for pain, as a way to gauge how much something will hurt, be it an injection or cutting a finger. That got me thinking about torture. I then watched the movie The Human Centipede. Just a warning, if you are very sensitive to gruesome images DO NOT watch that movie, and under no circumstances watch the second part of that movie. That movie was got me really interested about torture and hence, this post.
Would torture be justified in a scenario like this - There is a ticking time bomb somewhere in an unknown location in your building. Somehow you manage to catch the person who has planted it and the person is not willing to disclose the location of the time bomb. You know your chances of finding it are slim. In that scenario, is it justified to torture the person for the greater good? I believe most people would torture the terrorist in that scenario. This "Ticking Time Bomb" scenario shows how torture can be justified in some scenarios.
I then did some research. The Nazi Human Experimentation, as the name suggests, was a series of scientific (or so they claimed) experimentation on human. The scenario was such that they had say, a thousand prisoners (though the actual number was far greater) and the Nazi's thought that executing them all in gas chambers would be a waste. For instance, healthy inmates were infected by mosquito's or given injections of the mosquito's mucus gland. After contracting the disease, they were treated with various drugs to see their efficiency. Though this may not seem as gruesome as you may think, malaria disease is extremely painful and more than half of the people tested died. If this does not convince you of the effects of torture, you can read this link- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation.
I believe that torture should only be carried out if it is justified. If the only way you can find a bomb is by torturing the terrorist who put it there, then it is justified as when the bomb explodes, it will cause more harm and even if it does not, the terrorist deserves it for even attempting to carry out this act.
When convicted murderers are sentences to the death penalty, I do not think that they should just be put in an electric chair as to me, this will be letting them off easily. They should be punished far worse. They should be put through the ordeal their victims were put in and this would teach not only them, but those out there who do such things that they must be accountable for their actions.
So what do you think? Should torture exist in society and if so, under what circumstances? Comment below.
Signing off,
Just another Singaporean
