How Does Torture Affect The Brain

Torture is something that is known as wrong internationally. Torture is “deliberate, systematic or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting on the orders of authority, to force a person to yield information, to confess, or any other reason” (World Medical Association, 1975, pg.1). There is a general consensus that there is a right to be free from any kind of torture as it can be found in many different human rights treaties around the world. The treaties show that all of the thoughts about torture are pointing away from the right to torture someone no matter what the case

David Figueroa Eng. 101A Professor Stern 4/20/15 Final draft In conclusion, in discussions of torture, one controversial issue has been on the use of it. On one hand, the people against torture argue that it is cruel and unusual punishment. On the other hand, those for torture argue that it should be used for the greater good. Others even maintain that under extreme circumstances, it may be admissible if it can save American lives. My own view is that no one should be subjected to cruel punishment because it is not only illegal, unreliable, ineffective, time consuming, it also has too many flaws that could potentially ruin innocent lives. The definition of torture is any act, whether physical or emotional, or maybe both, is intentionally subjected to a specific individual or a group for many reasons. Most of these reasons that torture is administered is for extracting information from an individual or just for punishing him/her for a crime that he/she has committed or is suspected of committing. The use of torture can be used to intimidate a person to give information that may be beneficial for a nation. The use of torture has been used for many centuries. The purposes of using torture have changed over the years as well as the methods in which a person is tortured. One crucial piece that has been established that separates us human beings from barbarians is the prohibition of using torture. There are many reasons why torture has been deemed a crime now in society. There are

Torture has been a sensitive subject in our government and among the people of the US. The article “Torture is Wrong-But it Might Work” Bloche about how even though torture is not moral to some, it can still provide effective results because of advanced techniques and psychological studies. He goes on to say that many believe it is effective but others will say it does not provide adequate results in interrogation efforts. Senators such as John McCain (R-Ariz.) believe it does not help at all; however, other government officials, such as former attorney general Michael Mukasey and former vice president Dick Cheney, believe it does (Bloche 115).

The War on Terror has produced several different viewpoints on the utilization of torture and its effectiveness as a means to elicit information. A main argument has been supplied that torture is ineffective in its purpose to gather information from the victim. The usefulness of torture has been questioned because prisoners might use false information to elude their torturers, which has occurred in previous cases of torture. It has also been supposed that torture is necessary in order to use the information to save many lives. Torture has been compared to civil disobedience. In addition, the argument has been raised that torture is immoral and inhumane. Lastly, Some say that the acts are not even regarded as torture.

Indeed, waterboarding can actually lessen the brain’s ability to extract memory.” (Vivian Giang, “Neuroscience Proves Torturing Terrorists Won’t Keep us Safe”) There is scientific evidence that supports the idea that putting suspects in extreme situations only makes them tell less truthful things. Citing the work of the professor of experimental brain research Shane O’Mara, from University of Dublin’s Trinity College and director of its Institute of Neuroscience, there is little evidence that torture reveals useful

A child who is under the age of puberty is lacking the chemicals in the brain to see the whole picture and make decisions so the wounds that happen in childhood, a time during which the child does not have the capacity to understand, trigger responses not based on the whole picture of the event just happened, it is based on the adrenaline of the events and the relationship of the current event to previous events and trauma stored in the brain. Once a child is traumatized, the child will be more vulnerable to perceiving future events as trauma. In the bible Paul says, “We are not to cast down arguments or strongholds and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought into captivity and to the obedience

Prompted by this phenomenon, Stanley Milgram investigates this “potent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct.” (Milgram 314) Milgram set up an experiment in which he intended “to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist.” (Milgram 314) Thereby, observations could be made of how long a person would continue to inflict pain. “To extricate himself from this plight, the subject must make a clear break with authority.” (Milgram 315) The basic premise of the study being to learn how an ordinary person reacts when put under pressure to cause great physical harm to a stranger through a series of simulated electrical shocks. However, the subjects are under the impression that they were participating in a study of memory and learning. This is where Diana Baumrind takes issue with Milgram’s study. She feels that “by volunteering, the subject agrees implicitly to assume a posture of trust and obedience.” (Baumrind 326) Basically, Baumrind feels that the setting of a fairly innocuous sounding experiment in a safe, controlled environment of a lab causes the subject to have a false sense of safety in the experimenter’s experience. Therefore, the experiments are prone to produce skewed results, as well as potential psychological injury to the subject. Later analysis of

Torture, (n.), the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. After reading “Torture” by Holocaust survivor, Jean Amery, it is clear that the above definition of torture does not provide an honest connotative definition for the act and effects of torture. Amery speaks about torture from his own personal experiences in both Auschwitz and Buchenwald, providing witness to the dehumanization of Jews. In “Torture”, Jean Amery truthfully depicts torture as an unimaginable terror, in which one loses sense of self, human dignity, and trust in the world, while gaining a haunted future.

One way this can be shown is through Ivan Pavlov’s tests on animals all exhibit symptoms of a nervous breakdown when put under prolonged physical and mental stress. “If the stress to which he is subjected is sufficiently

Gaul Rahman, a suspected Afghan radical, was arrested and brought to a CIA-run prison within six weeks of the 9/11 attacks. Rahman was detained for the purposes of providing inside information on the bombings, as well as to shed light on possible future terrorist attacks to be committed on United States soil. A month after his arrival at the prison, guards entered his cell to discover a gruesome sight. As quoted by the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture, “In November 2002, Gaul Rahman was shackled to his cell wall and made to rest unclothed on the bare concrete floor. The next day, the guards found Gaul Rahman’s dead body.” The junior officer that insisted on such treatment of Rahman was recommended by the CIA to receive a cash award of $2,500 for his superior work. Though the CIA praised the officer, many American citizens were appalled at Rahman’s treatment as detailed in the report, and the public became divided over whether Rahman’s treatment was humane. The concept of torture as a just means of security has become a significant source of dispute among the American public. With such divisiveness having the potential to create further discord in regards to the justice system and additional situations in which the use of torture is considered, a re-evaluation of interrogation policies is crucial to gain a position of solidarity on the issue. Despite the belief that torture is an effective means of combating terrorism against domestic interests, the need for

Throughout the course of this semester we have examined numerous issues which have all had different implications for the brain = behavior argument. Some who have been skeptical of the validity of this idea have been swayed by observations that processes and behaviors they originally thought to have a cloudy neurobiological basis in fact have a sound biological and physiological underpinning. One such phenomenon which can help elucidate the ongoing brain = behavior debate is Post-Traumatic Stress disorder, or PTSD. Most people are familiar in some sense with the phenomenon of PTSD. This phenomenon has been renamed, reworked, and redefined numerous times over the past

Many of these well documented effects include but are not limited to, mental and physical illness on individuals who were never plagued with such condition, “disruption in their emotional processes”(Corcoran. 3), and “symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.” (Corcoran. 4) Doesn’t that not sound like torture to you? Criminals are sent to prison to be incapacitated and rehabilitated, not to be isolated and tortured. Inmates are given prison or jail sentences, not torture sentences.

Consider the following situation: You are an army officer who has just captured an enemy soldier who knows where a secret time bomb has been planted. Unless defused, the bomb will explode, killing thousands of people. Would it be morally permissible to torture them to get him to reveal the bomb’s location? Discuss this problem in light of both Utilitarian and Kantian moral theories and present arguments from both moral perspectives for why torture is morally wrong.

Is physical damage the only type of damage a person can go through when tortured? People other than suffering life changing torture, they can also suffer through it psychologically. What is commonly assumed of these people is that they never return to their original state. Which in some cases is true as some physical damage is unrepairable to the pint in which even trying to live a normal life may be challenging. For sure there is one thing that is true; torture can manifest itself in many ways, from the common household, to the outcomes of war. Furthermore, one major assumption is that it mainly occurs in a physical state, when in reality it is also psychological. For example the psychological breaking of someone in solitary confinement which

Similarly to the physical pain, there was emotional and mental consequences that can never be altered. For example in a radio report, Ed Bradley describes how the procedures that were done on unwitting patients left them “emotionally crippled for life” (Mk-Ultra/Mind Control Experiments). The brain is one of the most important and sensitive organ in the human body. Experiments made by the CIA agents and other institutions like hospitals, colleges, and prisons used drugs, sensory deprivation, electroshock, and many other procedures that damaged an individual. A person forgets who they are and begins to go crazy and when it is done by someone, that is an unethical action. Additionally, Dr. Mary Morrow was a physician who was feeling the effects