Torture and Ethics

Torture and Ethics

Introduction

Torture is a traumatic technique, which is used as a means to subjugate the victims under pressure to get the desired results. Marcello Vignar, cited by Sironi, defines torture as "an intentional use of methods, which aim to destroy the beliefs and convictions of the victim in order to rob the constellation of personal identity.”

The notion of torture hampers a person, thus the individual deliberately deprived of his inherent uniqueness and its characteristics. It (torture) is the most visible tool, because the most striking aspects of the acculturation that may occur during the process. It is the instrument of denial, the annihilation of any specific (cultural, personal) right (Allhoff, 2008, 10).

Torture is therefore a process of dehumanization. What it aims is to destroy is the victims' sense of belonging. It is an aggression against the dignity and physical integrity, psychological and social conditions of individuals in order to exclude them from the human community. The practice of torture destroys their self-determination, breaks the bonds that bind them to their group membership (family, community, social, political, religious, ethnics, etc.), thus upsetting the dignity and sanctity of human behavior.

Discussion

Despite international agreements that prohibit and although governments deny who use it, the truth is that torture is common practice in many systematic countries regardless of their ideologies and economic systems. Torture has turned out to be an integral part of the security strategy of a government, an instrument of the state machinery to suppress dissidents. In contemporary times, torture is used as a prime strategy to obtain information or a confession, to punish, to intimidate and terrorize the victims or their families. Torture degrades and dehumanizes the victims. Today, people belonging from different social classes, groups, ages and professions are being subjected to torture in a variety of ways (Allhoff, 2008, 11).

Torturers subject their victims to extreme hardship designed to be excessive and unbearable. Whatever the companies, certain experiences such as cannibalism, the sight of the agony of others, the ingestion of excrement, the betrayal of loved ones, death of loved ones, incest, provoke emotions and reactions universally predictable as fear, anxiety, fear, sadness, horror, revulsion and disgust. The executioners torment the victims until their physical and psychological collapse, by using psychological methods intentionally causing injury.

Ontological Ethics and Torture

The ontological dimension can be considered analogous to preach about humanity (plural and individual), "its existence and meaning, implying the possibility of expressing the most of the same human capabilities" (Arnold, 2007, 36).

In the case of the social dimension, the "benchmark" for comparison to determine that "human being" as "social" by definition is given and not given historically, but in history we find examples of issues and trends. It has been housed in a desideratum for our lives today and tomorrow, and for the lives of those who live after us and we do not. Genocide, massacres, assassinations, torture, disease, hunger, kidnapping, imprisonment, persecution, hatred and revenge, arrogance and exclusivism, the love of violence (murder culture) social group extinction, ...