Torture and Ethics

Torture and Ethics

Introduction

According to the APA (American Psychological Association, 2002), it is necessary to strive for the benefits of those with whom you work and do not harm them. These guidelines are incorporated in the ethical principles and the code of conduct of psychologists at APA. Any harm to a person which is usually given through torture, harassment or bullying etc. is against the guidelines of moral and ethical principles in a society. The military in the United States of America should ban the use of torture in order to redirect the behaviors of any person. The psychologists have emphasized on the prohibition of torture in the society using their plans and expertise to design and help the interrogations and participations in such aspects that use torture or other types of cruelty such as inhumane acts and the treatment of degradation towards someone. The torture tactic is usually used as a device for interrogation and it is something opposite to the ethical and moral standards and code of conduct according to the psychologists. In addition, torture is also regarded as a tool that violates the international law in practice. It has been observed that the use of torture for the extraction of information that is reliable is ineffective. It is because it pressurizes the person and they might lie to get rid of the situation.

The ethical code of conduct can be ideally defined as the spiritual and the ideological foundation of a given human society. This concept helps the individuals comprehend their fellow human beings and the surrounding environment and then use this information to take the adequate decisions. The success of any human society has been attributed to the overall ideological and ethical beliefs, as they contribute in the development of the majority of the societal norms and the rules. The most significant factor regarding the concept of ethics is based on the relativity factor, and the different interpretations of ethics found in the major global societies. It would be incorrect to consider ethics as a completely universal term which cannot be interpreted differently. The fact is that the ethical code of conduct for any given society is heavily influenced by several external factors. Religion is generally considered as the strongest component which helps develop the ethical guidelines in a given society (Nguyen et Al, 2008). This is the reason why different region of the world have adopted different ethical principles, and have based their societal infrastructures as per some relative ideologies as utilitarianism, ontological, deontological and natural law.

Discussion

The torture more likely leads towards the faulty and ineffective intelligence. As a matter of fact, it has also been identified that torture results in negative consequences in long term related to the mental as well as physical health of a person. Surprisingly, the long term negative impacts and consequences of torture not only covers the survivors but they have a strong impact on the perpetrators of the the torture. In case of American citizens, the ...