3 ms·

This is a good moral question, and really is going to come down to personal belief. I absolutely do not believe governments should be able to torture someone,

This is a good moral question, and really is going to come down to personal belief. I absolutely do not believe governments should be able to torture someone, for any reason, regardless of the consequences. It has less to do with the suffering of a single person, and more with the constant and consistent scope creep that enters every government program coupled with the ability for any and all governments to be full of faceless, and therefore blameless, bureaucrats. Torture to save 1 million people today becomes torture to save 10 people tomorrow. If no one can be held accountable, then it becomes torture to stop a robbery instead of genocide. If you let your morals slip once, you are an immoral society. Like it or lump it. Edit to clarify: I am 100% anti-torture in any situation. I didn't think that needed clarification?

shapefrog 5y ago
Is it not already a moral slip to allow those 1 million people to die in a fireball to save the 1 person from torture?
- bluesign 5y ago
  What is the threshold, what about saving 1 person from dying ?
  - Ekaros 5y ago
    Or potentially saving someone from torture?
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  "Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last. Imagine that you are doing this but that it is essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature -- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance -- in order to found that edifice on its unavenged tears. Would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth." -- Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Loughla 5y ago
  No, because I am not the one responsible for those deaths. I am absolutely responsible for the torture, if I perform it. It is a travesty and a tragedy, but morally, if I did my best within the bounds of the law, what else is there? If there is no rule of law, what's the purpose of the whole thing? If torture is negotiable, why not speeding? Why not kidnapping (which might be implied in the torture)? Why not eliminating the right to a fair trial (again, maybe that's implied)?
FpUser 5y ago
>"This is a good moral question" No this is nothing more but a sleazy attempt to whitewash a crime
- Loughla 5y ago
  No, I'm not trying to do that. If you read my post, I plainly agree that torture is out of bounds entirely in any instance, ever, forever. I'm not sure how to re-word that to clarify.

shapefrog 5y ago

Is it not already a moral slip to allow those 1 million people to die in a fireball to save the 1 person from torture?

bluesign 5y ago
What is the threshold, what about saving 1 person from dying ?
- Ekaros 5y ago
  Or potentially saving someone from torture?
pmoriarty 5y ago
"Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last. Imagine that you are doing this but that it is essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature -- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance -- in order to found that edifice on its unavenged tears. Would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth." -- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Loughla 5y ago
No, because I am not the one responsible for those deaths. I am absolutely responsible for the torture, if I perform it. It is a travesty and a tragedy, but morally, if I did my best within the bounds of the law, what else is there? If there is no rule of law, what's the purpose of the whole thing? If torture is negotiable, why not speeding? Why not kidnapping (which might be implied in the torture)? Why not eliminating the right to a fair trial (again, maybe that's implied)?

FpUser 5y ago

>"This is a good moral question" No this is nothing more but a sleazy attempt to whitewash a crime

Loughla 5y ago
No, I'm not trying to do that. If you read my post, I plainly agree that torture is out of bounds entirely in any instance, ever, forever. I'm not sure how to re-word that to clarify.