Whose distorted moral judgments?
Torture, a controversial word, is defined by Paris Aristotle, the director of the Victorian Foundation for survivors of Torture as being " not just the physical applications of pain, but it requires the complete subjugation of the person at emotional, psychological and spiritual levels." It seems to be a complex definition, however torture is in fact much worse. As a survivor of torture I felt disgusted upon reading Mirko Bagaric's article supporting torture as an "excellent information gathering device" to "save the lives of thousands of innocent people". Torture is undoubtedly immoral, ineffective as well as rendering permanent scars inside the victim's head.
A few years after I was released from my ordeal my movements were still restricted and I could hardly speak. I knew I had been tortured for something I had taken no part in. I knew that I was free but I also knew that I wanted to stay far away from the street and people and be seen as little as possible.
Top: Signature of "Guido" on his confession under ...
Torture Museum 4542
Torture Museum 4521I had become branded by something terrible and remained inside the house, hardly making a sound, always looking fearfully out the window worrying over the slightest knock on the door.
I can still feel all the terror and anguish that I had years ago as I write this today. My horror of being tortured was magnified by the realisation that it was being done to me by another human being. It is a perversion and destruction of the very idea of human morality. I have accepted that these things happen in my country, but not here in Australia.
Australia does not endorse the death penalty, even for the most heinous crimes, and even where the convict has been given a fair trial and exhausted a lengthy appeals process...