Sunday, November 29, 2015

Is Torture Really Justified?


This week, our class watched a TV episode called “white bear.” It centers on a girl who is being tortured for a crime she committed. I thought this gave very interesting insight into whether torture is okay to do or not. It seemed like most of the people in the class were disgusted when they found out the terrifying situations the girl had to go through were all staged as a punishment for kidnapping a child. I have never been supportive of punishing people by torturing them, no matter what crime was committed. This is because I believe torture takes away the humanity of the person, which is something I believe should never be allowed under any circumstances. Everyone deserves to retain their humanity. I feel some people may be okay with torture because the person is seeing the human in front of them as a personification of the crime they committed, rather than a person. Seeing the torture from the perspective of the girl and getting to watch her go through the same sequence of events with the same amount of knowledge of what’s going on allows us to empathize her and see her as an individual human life rather than the personification of a kidnapper. I wonder if this episode had anyone rethink what they thought about torture and whether it is justified.

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