Are there certain kinds of acts (like torturing children) which are always wrong?
The problem I have with this is context. For example, I’d hope most people would react with horror to the deliberate infliction of pain and damage on a child. However, using that definition of torture would include circumcision. I don’t think circumcision is really necessary for the majority, but I know there are folks who do. Are they unethical? By their sights, no, but by mine, yes. Also, I know of at least one case where I didn’t like the torture, but I would have condoned it. A nurse I knew spoke of a medical ethics class she took with a number of burn ward nurses. An example was brought up in the class of a child with terrible burns across most of his body, who had to undergo an extremely painful procedure on a daily basis, so he’d survive. The nurses who had to do this to the poor child were all struggling with their own personal ethics. It was easy for them initially — they were helping the boy get better, after all. However, as the days passed and they had to deal with the hor
