Is Torture Ever Acceptable?

            A few days ago, President Obama issued an executive order de-classifying some Bush Administration memos that showed clearly that torture was authorized as an interrogation method for members of the CIA.  That raised, once again , the issue of whether or not the United States should use torture to get information from the people captured in our fight against terrorists. 

            Whenever this issue comes up, some variation of the “ticking bomb” scenario is usually considered.  It goes like this: A massive nuclear bomb is about to the detonated in a large American city and perhaps millions of people will be killed.  A CIA operative has captured a person, and there is strong evidence that this person knows the whereabouts of the bomb and how to disarm it.  Is torturing this person in order to obtain that information morally acceptable?  The discussion usually centers around one of two philosophical notions.  The first imposes the enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative.  “Act only on that maxim whereby you can allow it to become universal law.”  In other words, you can allow torture if you would allow others to use torture whenever they wished.  Since it is obvious we would not wish that torture be universally employed, Kantian philosophy says torture by anyone can never be considered moral behavior. The second brings up Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian ethics.  Bentham argued that ethical behavior involves doing the most good for the most people.  So for Bentham and utilitarians, torturing one person in order to save millions (or even hundreds) would be a morally acceptable act. 

            Philosophical questions notwithstanding, there is a more practical question to be answered: Can you actually get reliable information from torture.  A person will say anything to stop the pain.  What little research there has been on torture has shown it to produce singularly inaccurate intelligence.  In the “ticking bomb” scenario, it would be impossible to check out what the victim of your torture says before the bomb goes off.  Furthermore, unless you happen to be Jack Bauer, on the TV show 24, it is extremely unlikely anyone will actually encounter a ticking-bomb situation.  It only happens in movies, Tom Clancy novels, or TV shows that authorities capture a man they know has knowledge of a bomb eminently about to explode. 

            A more likely scenario is that authorities capture a person they think might have knowledge of some future plot that may or may not be planned.  Is it ethical, in other words,  to torture a suspected terrorist?  Suppose the person does not answer the question because he does not know, how far do you take the torture?  If you subject a person to torture, then later discover that the person had no knowledge of the questions asked, what do you say to that person?  “Oops!  Sorry about that.”

            In sum, what can we say about the use of torture for interrogation?  First, the information you get is unreliable.  Second, there is a really good chance that torture will be used on an innocent person.  Third, and in my view most important, using torture places the user at the same ethical level as the Iraqis under Saddam or any of the most depraved dictators.  Finally, the use of torture sets a precedent.  If we torture, it is more likely that any American soldiers, captured by future enemies, will be subjected to torture.   

            Torture is morally reprehensible.  It debases people to their most barbarous level.  But torture defiles not only the one being tortured, it corrupts the torturer as well.  A good bit of research has shown that people who subject others to violence, become themselves acclimated to their violent behavior and less concerned, as time goes on, about the pain they are inflicting.  If the U.S. wants to live up to its own moral values and the treaties it has willingly endorsed, it will follow the leadership of Senator John McCain and President Barack Obama and steer clear of any use of torture in the interrogation of prisoners.