Autopsy of a Mind

Chapter 95: Ethics of Torture

When we pulled up to the university, we were almost late for class. I shuffled into class so that Sebastian could take his time before returning. The class was a three-hour continuous one that fried the students' brains. Mostly the post-graduates and doctorate students attended it with a few undergraduates overestimating themselves. It was an advanced class in victimology and restorative justice.

Sebastian hadn't told me what today's class was about, so I was in the dark about this. I was talking to individual students, taking questions about the course and date of submissions when Sebastian walked in. I nodded towards him and walked towards the end of the class. 

"In today's class, we will be evaluating torture and its effects on the victim." My eyes shot to him, my hands pausing over the keyboard. Was this why he had kept it from me? He glanced at me passively and didn't even acknowledge it. 

"We'll be looking over a couple of cases and I will put it up to you to decide how the victims need to be rehabilitated."

The first couple of cases dealt with state authenticated torture and captivity of terrorists. The class was fired up, people firing out their opinions. 

"The question I want to pose is, does a criminal deserve to be tortured and treated inhumanly?" Sebastian stood back, his eyes roaming over the students. Mostly, the undergraduates and post-graduate students pointed out their opinions. 

"In my opinion, if the torture and captivity of a criminal can lead to extraction of information that can save many more lives, I don't see the problem with it." I flinched. It didn't sit well with me. 

"Then, in your opinion..." Sebastian began. "If torturing a criminal saved a hundred thousand lives, it is okay to torture them, is that right?" Some students nodded. "Okay, raise your hand if you agree." His command was received well. 

"Okay. If torturing a criminal saves one life, is that okay?" People still raised their hands. 

"Then, if we torture the criminal, and no lives are saved. Is it still right?" There was silence in the class. People still raised their hands. He picked one of them and asked them to stand up. "Don't be scared," he assured the guy. "I'll give you a hypothetical question." Sebastian looked around the class, he pointed towards the girl this guy liked and pulled her up. Just because. 

The manipulative man. I shook my head.

"She is the criminal in question," he said. "She has allegedly planted a bomb within the city and you need to find out where it is," he explained. I sat back and watched him look down at his desk calculatingly. "Will you torture her to find out?" he asked.

The guy gulped and hesitated before nodding. 

"What about everyone else?" There was radio silence. "Raise your hands," he commanded. Some did. There was a long silence. 

"I have a few questions for you, then. First, are you sure that there is a bomb?" 

"There is no benefit of the doubt in this situation," I female student spoke up. "In the off chance that there is a bomb, we need to find it and take care of it. And this is the suspect who knows the location." 

"Okay, I admit. There is no benefit of the doubt in this matter. There are lives at stake. Then my second question becomes, what technique will you use to bring out the information?" He picked up a fountain pen from the table and opened the cap. He smiled at the student and asked them to keep their hand on the desk.

"Come on," he coaxed. "If you have chosen torture, you need to tell me what is the most effective." If this was Sebastian's way of breaking bias, he was very aggressive about it. I quite liked this style. He was shattering their concept little by little. Having a live person in front of them appealed to their humanity. No one spoke. "Okay, I'll choose it myself, then." He pressed the nib between the girl's fingers and she flinched back. 

The students protested. 

"What? You don't want this to happen?" he asked with a small smile. "Why?"

"She didn't do anything wrong!" the guy from earlier yelled from the back. I chuckled. "I don't understand what you are getting at."

"But you're just assuming that she didn't do anything wrong. This is a critical situation, we can't take a risk." Throwing their argument back at them, huh?

The message sank in. "If you're appalled that an innocent human is getting tortured, be appalled when the person isn't innocent, either. They are humans and they deserve to be respected. If you think torture brings out results, you are wrong. It has the lowest turnover rates. Instead, detective work, psychology, and ethical interrogative methods produce authentic information. When you treat someone as a human, they feel better. Moreover, torture can lead to false information being given."

"To escape the pain, a person can say just about anything. They can lie, or even make up something they have no clue about to get away from the source of pain," a doctoral student answered. 

"Moreover, the body in pain is without reason. There is no method to communicate the truth when you are unable to express yourself. Pain renders you unable to speak or emote," I added in from the back. The class turned to look at me. 

"It is hard for people who are not in the situation to understand the extent of the pain. You might see someone in pain and say that you feel it, but in reality, you are unable. You can only imagine, but you will never know exactly how it manifests." It was a fact. 

"And if you all want more information on this, the reading material I will give out at the end of class will help put things into perspective." The conversation went on for longer with people mildly discussing rehabilitation for criminals who have faced state-sponsored brutality. It was an enriching experience.