Should Torture Be Allowed In Extreme Cases?
Good question! No, I don’t believe so, for these reasons: – Isn’t torture just another kind of terrorism? So which is the greater wrong? You might argue it would be justified in the scenario you describe…but I’m pretty sure most terrorists believe their actions are justified. That is why they do these terrible things. – A practical point: do you trust the state enough to be sure they would only ever use this power in the way you envisage? And never, for example, to use it against innocent individuals for purely political reasons (a la Robert Mugabe)? – You refer to the proposal that terrorists should lose their human rights. The whole point about human rights is that they are just that, inaliable rights, everyone enjoys them from the nicest old lady to the most wicked terrorist. That is why they are called “rights”, nothing has to be done to earn them and it is impossible for them to be taken away. If people don’t believe terrorists should enjoy these rights, they are of course entit
