If the point we're trying to make is that torture is always wrong
I'm not sure it is. All discussions of the ethics of torture have assumed non-consensual torture. I'm completely with "non-consensual torture is always wrong."
I'm open to hearing arguments that its wrong to torture someone who completely and freely volunteers to be tortured -- say, to find out what it's like or to prove a point -- but highly dubious. Was it wrong for those SERE instructors to torture their students, who were in that training program specifically to be tortured in a controlled environment for the purpose of being hardened against it?
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zvi and
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Date: 2009-04-25 12:57 am (UTC)I'm not sure it is. All discussions of the ethics of torture have assumed non-consensual torture. I'm completely with "non-consensual torture is always wrong."
I'm open to hearing arguments that its wrong to torture someone who completely and freely volunteers to be tortured -- say, to find out what it's like or to prove a point -- but highly dubious. Was it wrong for those SERE instructors to torture their students, who were in that training program specifically to be tortured in a controlled environment for the purpose of being hardened against it?
no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 05:32 pm (UTC)