Extreme Emergencies And Justice: Torturous Argument

Now coming to the argument regarding moral justification on torture in the case of extreme emergencies, it is seen that there have been cases of institutionalized acts of torture by legal authorities during extreme emergencies. The argument here is that there could be one-off acts of torture in extreme emergencies which can be considered as morally justifiable. However, if the torture is regularly administered then it is not morally justified as in the case of winning a war on terrorism. According to Nicholas Vrousalis in his article `Is Torture Ever Justified? ’ , “ A variety of moral arguments have been put forward in support of torture in cases of supreme emergency, or moral disaster.

Likewise, a variety of arguments have been put forward against torture. They can tentatively be classified into five categories: arguments from consequences, arguments from efficacy, arguments from proportionality, arguments from autonomy and arguments from ‘ moral ground’ .” (Vrousalis, Nicholas, 2005) A civil libertarian, Alan Dershowitz's has been writing extensively on the legal basis of torture. On November 8, 2001, in a commentary for Los Angeles Times “ Is there a torturous road to justice? ” he discusses a proposal for a warranty for torture.

According to Seth Finkelstein, in his article on Alan Dershowitz's Tortuous Torturous Argument, “ Much of the reaction to Alan Dershowitz's advocacy has blurred over a subtle point. Given that torture is such an incendiary subject, he's been accused of advocating torture itself (“ Dershowitz: Make Torture An Option” ads a headline on cbsnews. com). However, a careful reading of his commentary makes it clear that he isn't putting forth an argument in favor of torture per se. Rather, he postulates it will occur ("I have no doubt that if an actual ticking bomb situation were to arise, our law enforcement authorities would torture").

His point is then almost tangential from that perspective, a professorial concern with the due process of torture!