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these are difficult questions legally and morally that do not lend themselves to simple answers. THAT IS MY POINT.
Funny. A minute ago you were saying your POINT was that impobably hypotheticals sometimes happen. Wouldn't you hate it if you had to argue with you?
Addressing your POINT of the moment, though: no, these are not difficult questions legally. At all. The law is quite clear: torture is illegal. Full stop. The moral question - whether certain otherwise immoral acts are justifiable to prevent a greater wrong - is enormously difficult to defend prospectively... that is, without absolute knowledge of the outcome.
If you want to have this kind of rarefied philosophical discussion, I'm game... but you started by calling this a "practical" argument. And it's nothing of the sort.
