This was one of the first stories (if not the first) that I can recall where I did not finish reading it. Perhaps it has more of a personal sentiment for me because I have worked with the developmentally delayed for the past five or six years, and the fact that my wife is pregnant with yet another blessing.
I personally find it interesting to read about the various creative methods of torture used in the Russian Gulag, by Vlad the Impaler, Nero, and other places/people historically (and have used some that information as a base for the darker areas of my ongoing sci-fi writing), but this is in an entirely different vein for me.
yet another sad example of the total depravity of man and just how base any of our behaviour can be.