To pay, or not to pay?

Your right we shouldn't pay a ransom. It only encourages the taking of hostages. BUT if it were my boy I'd sell everything I owned, I'd beg borrow and steal, there are no lengths I wouldn't go to, there is nothing I wouldn't do, there is no humiliation I wouldn't suffer to save him. I know what that makes me but honestly I wouldn't care.

The weapons bought from ransom money will be used to kill someone else's loved ones.....hundreds of them.

If it was my loved ones and I had the means to get them home - any means - I would do in an instant.

Of course paying a ransom would seem the thing to do to the family of a hostage, but it is wrong as it encourages more taking of hostages as well as giving money to enable more killing. If the government,on our behalf, takes the decision that ransoms should not be paid, it removes it one step from the families, and I think such a decision is for the greater good. So hard for the families though.

There have been numerous instances of ransom paid and hostages not released throughout history.

Yes. Utterly stupid. Quite the wrong thing to do.

But I still would. Without hesitation.

Me too.

It's a question for the philosophy thread really. If you raised enough money to free your child and the terrorist bought something which then brought down the aeroplane which was taking your other child on holiday have you killed your second child ?

Now you're going into the realms of deep philosophy Stansgran. I'm talking reality , not flights of fantasy.

The British 'adventure seekers', Paul and Rachel Chandler got more adventure than they had bargained for when they sailed too close to the Somali coast.... family paid the ransom. Poor Judith Tebbutt's son was faced with his father having been killed in a Kenyan holiday complex ,and his mother being abducted by the killers . He raised every penny he could and I don't blame him at all.

Okay, the Somali pirate were kidnapping because they were destitute ... does that enoble the act?

I'm not that stupid Stansgran, I know the consequences and I know I shouldn't approve of my government's "pay up and bring them home attitude" but as my OH is adamant you don't pay..... what would I do as a mother... which, whatever the 'experts' say it is different from being a father. I could not bear the thought of a child I had nurtured from an embryo, through all the highs and lows of bringing him/her up to stand back and allow him/her to be killed in such a brutal , primitive manner as beheading and have it video-ed and put out on social media. Killed in battle, blown up by a suicide bomber ... that's bad enough but the way the IS are going at the moment puts a whole new meaning on the word 'barbarism'.

And you can philosophise on that till the cows come home.

I apologise if you felt I was calling you stupid. I certainly wouldn't dream of doing that. My feeling is that women made sacrifices of their sons in war" for the greater good" and a journalist who seeks thrills to make sure he earns good money while being someone's son knows or should know the risks and should not put others at risk by enabling more weapons to be bought by these terrorists. The Somali pirates are a different case aren't they ?as they have groups in this country who find out how much the prisoners are worth.

Sure, there is a world of difference between a son making a sacrifice in war...( though as a bit of a pacifist I don't really subscribe to that thought) and a journo who would say he is bringing the world's attention to a terrible situation..... did not Micheal Burke and countless others do that back in the 1990s re the famines and genocide in Africa?

But my original posting was prompted by the terrible torture the family of David Haines must be going through. An aid worker for heaven's sake. Just as brave .....may be more than.... the conscripted soldier, who is following orders, David Haines chose to do something "for the greater good"

Like everyone else, if it were my son I would want a ransom to be paid.

If Prince Harry had been abducted by the Taliban in Afghanistan I'm absolutely certain that our government would have done a deal.