05-01-2009, 06:45 PM
Quote:Defining that line may be difficult, but as a start, physical harm should be a criterion. Not just discomfort. Lack of sleep, hunger, uncomfortable positions, and the like are not, in my opinion, torture. The modern bleeding heart coddling of scum often sickens me more than does the so called 'torture'.What is "physical harm"? Starvation certainly causes physical harm, or else we wouldn't need to eat. Sleep deprivation causes physical harm, or else we wouldn't need to sleep. Do you mean drawing blood? Breaking bones? Leaving marks? Likewise, what would purely "non-physical" harm be? Unless you're proposing some kind of total mind-body dualism, something that causes lasting psychological harm is affecting the body just as "physically" as the rack would, just in a different location. Something like waterboarding leaves its victims with lasting recurring terror, possibly even for the rest of their lives. Presumably, they aren't just making that up, and unless you know a reliable way to induce amnesia, I don't know how you'd stop the lasting damage from happening.
-Jester