It would be a good idea

[mdlbear]

There are some crimes that are universally condemned in the civilized world. Murder. Slavery. Torture. Terrorism. Genocide. Sometimes one has to condone one evil in order to prevent a greater one; most civilized countries have standing armies, and some conscript their citizens into them. All civilized countries draw the line at torture.

There are several reasons for this, besides the obvious fact that history has proven time after time that it does not work: the "information" one obtains from a person who is give it in order to stop intolerable pain is likely to be of little value. Likely, even, to be deliberately misleading. But the chief reason has to be that it's evil. Like Sauron's ring, it corrupts any person, any organization, any nation that uses it. Like other great crimes, torture cuts the perpetrator off from civilization. From humanity.

It's possible to construct a "ticking time bomb" scenario in which torture is the only possible way to get some necessary, vital bit of information needed to prevent a greater crime. Fine. Leave the law on the books. If somebody is willing to break that law, in public, with all the records on video, and put their career, their reputation, and their life on the line in front of a jury of their peers, I'll grant them the right to try it.

If they're not willing to pay that very personal price, if they want to warp the law to let them get away with unspecified acts in secret that, when found out, do untold damage to their country's reputation in the civilized world, well, that's a crime, too. It's called treason.

Just as an aside, you'll find some other blog entries more-or-less aligned with my point of view here, here, and here. Opposing view here.

Oh, and the title? It's what Gandhi said when asked what he thought of Western civilization. I'd really like to be living in a civilized country again.

Comments

[mithriltabby]

Yes. If there ever is a Hollywood-style scenario where there really is a ticking time bomb, and someone did manage to save lives through torture, that the district attorney might decline to prosecute, or that a jury would fail to convict, or a governor or president issue a pardon. Leave the laws on the books forbidding torture and leave such hypothetical exceptional cases for the mechanisms we already have in place to handle them.