Essay about the arguments made by Charles Krauthammer

About the arguments made by Charles Krauthammer - Essay Example Eventually, whether or not the student agree with Krauthammer’s argument will be explained. With regards to the issue on ‘torture’, Charles Krauthammer argues that utilitarianism behind torturing a person highly depends on the situation. For instance, torturing a person for no reason at all can be considered as something that is wrong or immoral. However, given that the situation is to choose between torturing a terrorist person who intentionally implanted a bomb with the purpose of killing thousands of people, Krauthammer argued that torturing the terrorist is the best thing to do in order to save the lives of the majority who are innocent individuals. For this reason, he concludes that â€Å"torture is not always impermissible† (Shelly). Upon evaluating and equally judging the overall welfare of the people who are directly involved or affected with the action of whether or not to legally accept the act of torturing a terrorist person who has implanted a bomb, I agree with Krauthammer’s argument on the issue of torture in the sense that it would be best to torture one person who has a negative intention to hurt thousands of people by implanting a bomb than to let go of the bad person in exchange of losing thousands of life. Upon weighing pleasure and pain of allowing the implanted bomb to explode and kill thousands of people with the pleasure and pain of torturing the terrorist who implanted the bomb, the amount of pain will be so much greater than the pain that will result out of torturing the terrorist man who implanted the bomb. When we talk about utility, we are actually referring to an act which could result to ‘greatest happiness’. Based on the greatest happiness principle, it is right to do action that will promote happiness as a consequence of the act and wrong if the action could cause unhappiness (The University of Adelaide Library). Happiness means people should enjoy the benefit of having