Torture Warrants Essay
Response to the Reading
I will begin by stating that when it comes to torture, I am fully against it if there is not an extremely good reason for it. No type of torture (psychological, physical, emotional, and sexual) should be done willy-nilly. I also condemn the involvement of innocents (such as unknowing family members or friends). If, however, the situation did call for extreme levels of torture, I would do it with no qualms whatsoever. Concerning the readings, I agree mainly with Scarry, but I understand where Dershowitz is coming from in regards to his wish for accountability for the torturers, but I don’t believe that his plan for a warrant system would actually help increase it. I don’t think warrants would really help at all.
Alan Dershowitz’s argument in his essay “Tortured Reasoning” is that he wants to reduce the act of torture while also increasing the knowledge of its use in the public eye using a warrant system. He “[knows that] at least moderate forms of nonlethal torture are in fact being used by the United States and some of its allies today”, and he understands that during any mass terrorists cases or hostage …show more content…
How exactly can one be held accountable and be punished for torturing when one was granted express permission to torture? If I was given the green light to torture, wouldn’t that exclude me from the punishment of those that did not receive a warrant? Elaine Scarry also makes this observation in “Five Errors in the Reasoning of Alan Dershowitz.” She explains that (assuming that Dershowtiz’s torture warrant court would only grant warrants in extreme cases where it is possible that torture is needed to stop mass death) the “prohibition against torture would dissolve in those cases where the torturer has a warrant but will stay in place for any act that has not first been warranted”
Response to the Reading
I will begin by stating that when it comes to torture, I am fully against it if there is not an extremely good reason for it. No type of torture (psychological, physical, emotional, and sexual) should be done willy-nilly. I also condemn the involvement of innocents (such as unknowing family members or friends). If, however, the situation did call for extreme levels of torture, I would do it with no qualms whatsoever. Concerning the readings, I agree mainly with Scarry, but I understand where Dershowitz is coming from in regards to his wish for accountability for the torturers, but I don’t believe that his plan for a warrant system would actually help increase it. I don’t think warrants would really help at all.
Alan Dershowitz’s argument in his essay “Tortured Reasoning” is that he wants to reduce the act of torture while also increasing the knowledge of its use in the public eye using a warrant system. He “[knows that] at least moderate forms of nonlethal torture are in fact being used by the United States and some of its allies today”, and he understands that during any mass terrorists cases or hostage …show more content…
How exactly can one be held accountable and be punished for torturing when one was granted express permission to torture? If I was given the green light to torture, wouldn’t that exclude me from the punishment of those that did not receive a warrant? Elaine Scarry also makes this observation in “Five Errors in the Reasoning of Alan Dershowitz.” She explains that (assuming that Dershowtiz’s torture warrant court would only grant warrants in extreme cases where it is possible that torture is needed to stop mass death) the “prohibition against torture would dissolve in those cases where the torturer has a warrant but will stay in place for any act that has not first been warranted”