Sliding off Torture’s Halo of Prohibition
Lessons on the Morality of Torture Post 9/11
In: Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the LawSearch for other papers by Adam Henschke in
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Before the Al Qaeda attacks in the us, it was hard to find support for torture in the liberal-democratic world. However, post 9/11 torture (or at least something very close to torture) was used by liberal democracies like the United States (us). Practices like water-boarding were justified by reference to the war on terror. Underneath this lies a reasoning that we have two options, some large scale act of violence and torture, and that torture is a lesser evil, exemplified by ‘ticking time bomb’ scenarios – if you have two options, both bad, but one is far worse than the other, the lesser evil seems a reasonable decision. This article proposes that there is a moral danger through slippage from recognising torture as a generally justified action. It explains this slippage by reference to the ‘halo effect’: a cognitive bias in which something is judged as permissible or good through association with non-relevant facts. Given the current risks of domestic terrorism, the article argues that we need to learn from the us example post 9/11 to ensure that we avoid justifying uses of torture in non-exceptional circumstances.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
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Sliding off Torture’s Halo of Prohibition
Lessons on the Morality of Torture Post 9/11
In: Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the LawSearch for other papers by Adam Henschke in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Before the Al Qaeda attacks in the us, it was hard to find support for torture in the liberal-democratic world. However, post 9/11 torture (or at least something very close to torture) was used by liberal democracies like the United States (us). Practices like water-boarding were justified by reference to the war on terror. Underneath this lies a reasoning that we have two options, some large scale act of violence and torture, and that torture is a lesser evil, exemplified by ‘ticking time bomb’ scenarios – if you have two options, both bad, but one is far worse than the other, the lesser evil seems a reasonable decision. This article proposes that there is a moral danger through slippage from recognising torture as a generally justified action. It explains this slippage by reference to the ‘halo effect’: a cognitive bias in which something is judged as permissible or good through association with non-relevant facts. Given the current risks of domestic terrorism, the article argues that we need to learn from the us example post 9/11 to ensure that we avoid justifying uses of torture in non-exceptional circumstances.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 373 | 70 | 13 |
| Full Text Views | 239 | 1 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 89 | 1 | 0 |