Danielle, your term "a painfree method of extracting information against a person's will" carries carries many assumptions.

I recall going to a friends's Bar Mitzvah and hearing him declare that his decision to to participate was made freely and without duress.

I made a similar declaration when I changed my citizenship, about 20 years later.

In both cases, the answer to the question carried lots of freight, and could have caused pain to the subject and their wider networks. It has to do in part with how you define pain, I believe.

An interesting take on this, which has influenced my opinion, is to be found in the novel "City of Light", by Michael Doane, published in the early '90's. Postage would be the main expense if you wanted a copy. Mine was $1.00, from the Wentworth, NSW Library cull shelf.

But I digress. A medically "pain-free" method of interrogation of unwilling subjects is central to the plot.

I am neither a legal nor a medical expert, and so I fall back on the article I cited above, "Bad Science Used to Justify and Support Torture and Human Experimentation". Check there to find someone who may give you a more nuanced and authoritative answer to the question.

All boiling down to a more direct answer to whether I would " ... consider a painfree method of extracting information against a person's will, torture?"

IMHO, Duress is accompanied by pain, so your proposition is an oxymoron.

I would say there is no such thing as painless intervention, against a subject's will.

Perhaps the way forward is through informed consent, as is required in all ethical experimental protocols currently used by universities in Australia.

Sir Vivor,

We are both in accord as to how one would define pain; and indeed how an individual subject might perceive it.

I will try and obtain the title you recommend - it sounds interesting.

Informed consent? Unless a terrorist has undergone some sort of epiphany, informed consent is unlikely.

I am not suggesting medical intervention as such. 'Truth' drugs - sodium pentathol? No ... also results cannot be definitive. Nor am I suggesting invasive methods.

Neuroscientists are researching (and finding) pupils respond with differing states of cognition. Would you accept, if it were possible, the use of computational neuroscience with eye-scanning. If it were feasible, it would mean a more sensitive interrogation tool.

Personally, I would have absolutely no problems with this if it produced results - albeit information is obtained against a person's will, possibly resulting in great psychological pain.

Do we place a premium on distress from failure/'betrayal' (pain) an individual might experience, against the lives of the innocent?

Danielle,

I have drawn my line in the sand. I decline to discuss the issue further; I have the luxury of doing so because I am outside the first-person realms of those who deal explicitely with torture and its victims, as tormenter or as healer. The experts I mention above may be able to help you further on your journey.

Kind regards

http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/documents/articles/allen-keller-iacopino-science.html

"Bad Science Used to Justify and Support Torture and Human Experimentation"

"Article Shows that the US Government Used Bad Science to Commit and Conceal Torture

"PHR Medical Experts Published in Science Magazine
In an article published by the journal Science, PHR experts Dr. Scott Allen, Dr. Allen Keller, and Dr. Vince Iacopino show that the Bush administration relied on flawed science to justify the use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) which were previously recognized as torture by the US government. The article, Bad Science Used to Support Torture and Human Experimentation can be found in the January 7, 2011, issue of Science.

"A summary of the article, a PDF reprint, and the full text of the article may be found at these links:

Summary
http://bit.ly/izkxMr

Reprint (pdf)
http://bit.ly/mzXtF7

Full Text
http://bit.ly/mrBtxU

Danielle,

An afterthought:
see
http://blog.refugemediaproject.org/2011/06/07/upcoming-events-june-2011/

"Caring for the Survivors of Torture"

Sir Vivor,

Thank you for the references.

You are obviously a gentle... man and highly ethical.

The science, itself, I mentioned could not be seen as bad science. This scanning method is being researched to assist those with certain conditions, not the least of all the horrific Lockedin Syndrome.

Life for all of us consists of periods of 'pain'. This cannot be avoided ... Should we always try to escape it? Is that healthy? For many, 'pain' brings with it awareness and compassion; is a learning process.

At sometime we all have to take responsibility for our actions, sometimes taking responsibily is forced upon us.

Our justice system has 'pain' at its core. Those who prey upon others are punished.

Perhaps those who, in the case of terrorists, experience trauma for unwillingly providing information, may at some time in the future be grateful that greater tragedy had been averted. People do change. We have witnessed this even with terrorists ... Walid Shoebatt, Tawfik Hamid etc.

Regards