This 6 page paper argues that torture is permissible only in extremely narrowly-defined circumstances, not as a routine method of dealing with prisoners. It argues further that the Bush administration has in fact made the definition far too broad, and embraced torture; this is not surprising for an administration that is secretive, corrupt and power-mad. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_HVtorbsh.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
level as the nations it pretends to condemn with such severity. Discussion George W. Bush will almost certainly go down in history as the worst President the United States has
ever had. His arrogance, his disregard of the law and the Constitution, and his decision to "go it alone" in the so-called "war on terror" have turned America into something
very close to a dictatorship, as well as severely damaging our relationships with our allies, some of whom have been friends for centuries. The decision to approve the use of
torture may mark the low point of an administration that seems to know no bounds. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy considers the question of torture at length, and
finally comes up with this definition: "Accordingly, we arrive at the following definition. Torture is: (a) the intentional infliction of extreme physical suffering on some non-consenting, defenceless person; (b) the
intentional, substantial curtailment of the exercise of the persons autonomy (achieved by means of (a)); (c) in general, undertaken for the purpose of breaking the victims will" (Miller, 2008). However,
Miller also argues that there may be times, in emergencies and only in individual cases, when torture is permissible. As an example, he describes a situation in which the police
in London know there is a bomb set to go off; they know it will kill thousands; they have captured the man who set it; he is a known terrorist;
they believe that he will talk if they torture him; and he refuses to talk (Miller, 2008). The police here have two options: to torture the suspect in an act
they find morally repugnant and save thousands of lives; or to refrain from torturing him and allow the bomb to explode. Miller has constructed this thought experiment so that there