Torture (1978)*

It is often assumed that if killing during war can be justified, then torture that does not kill also can. But torture constitutes merciless assault upon someone utterly defenceless because an effort to ‘surrender’ by providing the information sought may always be ruled by the torturer to be insufficient. Torture has different purposes, and terroristic torture is distinguished from interrogational. The ticking bomb scenario (TBS) used to defend torture ignores the terroristic variety and wildly misleads concerning interrogational torture by incorporating multiple false assumptions: the torturers have the right person, the torture victim provides timely accurate information, only torture could obtain the information, and, most importantly, torture will be rare. Practical ethics depends on examining actual practices.