Examples Of Deontological Ethical Position On Torture

Deontological Ethical Position on Torture Philosopher Albert Camus said that “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon the world” (Camus, n.d.). The statement expresses the imperative need for mankind to comprehensively understand ethics in order to deem actions as right or wrong. Ethics are used to decipher what should be done when faced with controversial moral dilemmas, such as the torture of humans. Immanuel Kant was an ethicist and philosopher who developed his own ethical system of Kantian ethics, otherwise known as deontology. The following paper will outline the ethical dilemma of torture, define the deontological ethical system, and use deontology to prove why torture of humans is immoral. Torture is a moral issue that has been debated over for many years, but has undoubtedly been in practice since the beginning of time. Torture, by legal definition, is any intentional infliction of physical or mental pain on a person by a public official for a specific purpose (Association for the Prevention of Torture, n.d.). Torture was practiced by many ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians, Greek, and Romans, and was even considered acceptable to be used within the Church …show more content…
For example, many ethicists use the hypothetical “ticking bomb” scenario when evaluating the morality of torture. This scenario is typically involves a governmental authority catching a criminal that has placed a bomb scheduled to explode in the immediate future in a large, populated city (Association for the Prevention of Torture, n.d.). The question is posed: Is it ethical or unethical to torture the terrorist in order to gain the necessary information to remove the bomb and save the city? The answer to this controversial question varies depending upon the ethical system one subscribes