Torture is always wrong

[OldGreyEagle 5]

See, this is why I try to stay out, but they keep dragging me back in...

 

When I spoke of torture, I meant it as an intelligence (irony much?)gathering tool. Torture for the sake of punishment or amusement is always wrong, but then I am the guy who says there are no absolutes.

 

What is torture? A simple explanation is anything that is intentionally done to another which causes pain or causes the person to expect pain for some reason. Be the reason amusement or intelligence gathering or other purpose. But then again, what is torture? Our prisons deprive people of the ability to go where they wish when they wish and this causes pain. Is being incarcerated torture? Perhaps to the inmates, but to people on the outside wall, its where the prisoners belong (well more or less)

 

Going to School was torture to me, other children didnt seem to mind but there is no accounting for taste

 

[Beavah 205]

My point is still there. Define torture.

 

From da United States Code (18 USC 2340)

 

(1) torture means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;

(2) severe mental pain or suffering means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from

---(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;

---(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;

---© the threat of imminent death; or

---(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality.

 

From the UN Convention Against Torture (to which the U.S. is a signatory, and da Senate ratified making it U.S. law as well):

 

For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

 

1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.

2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

 

And just for OGE, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (description of violations of the Fifth Commandment, 2297-98):

 

Torture, which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity.

 

Beavah

 

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Thank you Beavah, you are a pal

[evmori 11]

Is bullying a form of torture?

[NJCubScouter 1389]

Is bullying a form of torture?

 

Or is torture a form of bullying?

 

Or neither, unless the person doing the "torturing" is a government official or acting under the authority of state or federal law? Notice that the first two definitions limit "torture" to acts by government officials, or someone acting "under color of law" (which can be a little broader but still requires some association with the government.)

 

This suggests that the same kind of pain-causing act, when done by one (non-governmental) person to another, is the crime of assault or aggravated assault (or similar terminology), but when done by the government to an individual, is torture. I think most people use the term a little more broadly than that.

[evmori 11]

Pain can be incurred in many different ways.