I caught the Moral Maze on torture as well and fou...

I caught the Moral Maze on torture as well and found myself shouting at the radio like a demeted fool. Nobody seemed to get it. It's a moral conundrum with an obvious solution:

If someone hurts someone you love you would willingly, even actively, kill them. This would be an understandable action, but not a justifiable one. The police would be right to try and stop you from killing and to punish you if you had killed. This doesn't make the moral issue of murder muddier, it stays the same - it is wrong.

Similarly with torture. If the unlikely scenario of the ticking bomb/kidnapped child should ever occur, then the person in a position to extract information should do so in the knowlesge that they will face the same punishment as if it were an 'unjustified' act. If they are convinced enough that they will save America, or the Suffocating Kidnapee, then they should be willing to make that sacrifice.