one path, or many?

[troglodyte]

do the ends justify the means?

hypothetical example:
A bomb has been planted in New York city. the police have taken into custody a known terrorist who took part in this plot to bomb NY. they have one hour before the bomb explodes, killing many people. The person the police have knows where the bomb is. If they torture him they will get the information. If they don't, innocent people will die.

I'm expecting one of two arguements... the:
"greater good" point of view
or
the "we can't sink down to their level" POV

i'm just curious to see how tightly people will hold onto their values...

 

[knightlight72]

The likely result is that many people are probably glad they are not put in this situation.

 

[rebelEnigma]

If they torture him they will get the information. If they don't, innocent people will die.

There is no way we could know that by torturing him, we would get the information.

 

[Moros]

Justice is always of higher value than mercy. Even if the bomb does go off, the guy is in custody, which will prevent him from doing it again.

 

[michabo]

If they torture him they will get the information. If they don't, innocent people will die.

Torture doesn't work, despite what they show on 24. About the most effective forms of torture take much longer than a couple hours, and when a person is broken, they will say anything. This makes torture a slow process, and totally unreliable.

i'm just curious to see how tightly people will hold onto their values...

There's also the question of what you want to happen to your people, should they be captured. Even if you value the lives of the people you are trying to protect and don't care at all for the lives of your enemy, you should still not use torture, if only to prevent the enemy from using torture. This isn't complete protection, but has helped.

 

[Merlin]

In the US, people are goverened by the rule of 'law'.
So, it depends on what the law is.