Torture is among the worst kinds of suffering a human being can inflict on another human being. Many people believe that it is better to die than to experience the pain created whilst undergoing torture. The tortured captive is helpless and a person who has no knowledge of any information useful for the torturer, he/she has no power over his/her fate, so faces continuous torture. Consequences of torture are often lifelong and affect the victim in intolerable ways. Their bodies and minds are being treated as toys and their dignities reduced to nothing. It is intimately associated with the horrific and oppressive crimes that the human history has ever seen. Someone witnessing or even imaging the infliction of severe pain on others would feel intense physical repulsion and horror. The person torturing the helpless victim may be corrupt, mentally disabled, psychologically damaged, degraded or deprived of free will.
The Ticking Bomb Problem
When we think about torture, the problem that most of us are faced with is whether there is ever a situation when a positive result produced by torture justifies the evil act of torturing the individual. This question is often posed as “the ticking bomb problem”.
The ticking bomb problem is a hypothetical thought experiment where the perpetrator of an imminent terrorist attack is in the custody of the authorities. The terrorist group have filled the city with bombs. The bombs will kill the whole population of the city and the only way of preventing the attack is to torture the perpetrator. The perpetrator will, only then, reveal the information needed to stop the imminent attack.
The ticking bomb problem is a hypothetical thought experiment where the perpetrator of an imminent terrorist attack is in the custody of the authorities. The terrorist group have filled the city with bombs. The bombs will kill the whole population of the city and the only way of preventing the attack is to torture the perpetrator. The perpetrator will, only then, reveal the information needed to stop the imminent attack.