Ethical Implications of Torture: A Moral Examination

Torture has been used to gather information, to intimidate or control people by intentionally inflicting physical or mental pain on a person without legal cause and, therefore, is considered as a moral unjustifiable act which dehumanized an individual and this deed should only be carried out if its grounds justifies the act of torturing someone.

Human beings have values and when they are treated as an end, their native values are respected but by torturing people, the victims are treated as a means to an end. A person’s physical body should not be used as a tool to achieve the aims of the torturer. When this action is done the victim is used a “thing”. According to Kant’s theory known as the categorical imperative: “Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simple as a means, but always at the same time as an end” (Fieser 179).

Torture is morally wrong under The Golden Rule of The Normative Theory. This theory includes what is morally right or wrong, how

Any action that are inappropriate to humans are actions that one should not indulge in to harm another individual. One should stay away from any unjustifiable action and protect human’s life. In Natural Law Theory, according to Aquinas’s six natural inclination which states that “All acts that are unsuitable for human ends are acts that we should not do”, “All acts that harm others are acts that are unsuitable for human ends”, “Therefore, all acts that harm others are acts that we should not do and henceforth, avoid harming others” (Fieser 60). Another principle according to Aquinas is the synderesis principle. This principle is based on an argument that people should avoid evil and do good, and torturing is evilous. According to Aquinas’s highest principle of natural law: “good is to be sought and done, and evil to be avoided” (Fieser