Corporal punishment vs. torture

owen from 69.197.16.114 at Sat, 14 Oct 2006 05:16:05 +0000:
I read the whole piece as "Capital punishment" instead of corporal, and it still made sense

Barry Furniss from 198.54.202.210 at Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:42:42 +0000:
I was found guilty of rape on four counts in Sigapore and sentenced to 20 years and 10 strokes of the cane. This sentence was later changed to 5 years and 24 strokes of the cane. I am very glad that it was changed, because I was then able to get through the caning and serve my time and get out of there. I would far prefer the cane against doing prison time. I know3 that the cane is extremly creul and harsh. I also agree that the pain inflicted by the cane is totaly undescribable, but the cane is a means of prevention were as the prison time is a wast of time.

Michael from 131.217.6.8 at Thu, 29 Mar 2007 06:00:03 +0000:
Torture and corporal punishment have very different purposes. The theory behind torture is that, if you torture me, I tell you where the other terrorists are hiding. On a purely practical basis, torture doesn't work: torture me hard enough and I'll tell you what you want to hear, not what I actually know. It also encourages me to fight to the death rather than surrender.

The theory behind corporal punishment is that, if I misbehave, and you hurt me, I'm less likely to misbehave again. Once again, on a practical basis, this sometimes succeeds: my nervous system may happen to build a solid connection between misbehaving and getting injured - but the Human nervous system is complex, and I may just build up an dislike for you, or the cane, or the smell of the room I get punished in. At best, it'll only work if the pain comes seconds after I misbehave - corporal punishment as part of a legal process is not going to train my nervous system.

So, on a practical basis I'm opposed to torturing prisoners, but do feel that corporal punishment of children - rarely, for extreme misbehaviour - is justified. I could be wrong, and you'll be happy to know that I have no children of my own.

Gilligan from 71.222.75.105 at Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:43:54 +0000:
I do have children and I still think a spanking now and again is alright too. As long as your spanking reason is for teaching that child their right from wrong and now only because they were too noisy while you were watching football of the soaps, then yes spank that child.
Torturing people is just plain wrong in any culture and any country. I also know that there are times of extreme circumstances that I do not know what I would do if someone had information that I needed. Needing to know the whereabouts of a child of mine that may be hurt, just might provoke me to drastic measure. On the other hand I just might drop to the floor crying and try to plead with that person to tell me what I need to know.

Spanking never hurt anyone, where beatins hurt more than just the beatten.