Pros And Cons Of Torture

Torture can be perceived as a practice that is barbaric or heroic. Most commonly, people think of torture as historical ethnic groups who practiced torture to instill fear in the lives of peasants. People think of the vicious Romans, maybe even Attila the Hun who would pull the limbs from his enemies. But, in reality, torture is used in present time by our government and trusted professionals. Our government practices waterboarding and claim it makes us safer, psychologists practice shock therapy on test subjects claiming it will make them better. I have read through many authors studies and research, and many of them state that torture turned to be no help in provided information on terrorists and in the end caused both psychological and physical

76). Zubaydah was tortured by CIA but, more importantly, the torture failed and instead caused the man cognitive damage. (Arnold & Hall, 2013). To once more prove that torture doesn’t work, John McCain argued that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was tortured 183 times, and he also argued that the three other detainees were waterboarded, but during any of these practices did they produce information that led the CIA to Osama bin Laden. (Terry, 2013). Tortures psychological effects include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which is defined as a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or seeing a terrifying event (Mayo Clinic 2014), Adjustment Disorder which is a type of stress-related mental illness that causes anxiety, depression, suicidal tendencies and difficulty adjusting to change in life (Mayo Clinic 2014), Conversion Disorder which is when you show psychological stress, usually from an emotional crisis, in physical ways (Mayo Clinic 2014), Depression is a disorder that affects “how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems” according to the Mayo Clinic. Depression causes victims to struggle with day-to-day activities, and can obsess over the idea that life isn’t worth living. (Mayo Clinic 2014), and sometimes torture can cause psychotic manifestations which include Schizophrenia a severe brain disorder in which “people interpret reality abnormally and can result with a combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior” (Mayo Clinic 2014). But, torture is a doubled edged sword. It has the power to psychologically harm not only the victim, but the person doing the torturing as well (Jayatunge, 2007). Meaning that torture harms