The parents of an American hostage killed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in 2014 are speaking out against the U.S. policy of refusing to pay ransoms.

Art and Shirley Sotloff, the parents of slain journalist Steven Sotloff, told “60 Minutes” they were told the U.S. government could prosecute them if they tried to pay for their son’s release.

Sotloff was captured by ISIS in 2013 in Syria and held for months before his parents received a ransom letter demanding the U.S. free all Muslims in custody or pay a $137 million ransom.

Our “reaction was how the hell are we going to get this money together?” Shirley Sotloff told “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday night.

United States policy — unlike many European countries — is not to pay ransoms. Even as Sotloff remained captive, some of the Europeans held with him were freed, prompting the Sotloffs to try to raise some of the money themselves.

But at a meeting in Washington with National Security Council officials, Art Sotloff said they were told to stop.

“All of us were saying, ‘Well, why can’t we try to save our kids?’ And they said, ‘Because it’s against the law. We do not negotiate with terrorists.’

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“They said, ‘You could be prosecuted, and also your donors could be prosecuted,’” he added.

Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for counterterrorism, told CBS’s Lesley Stahl that as difficult as the policy is, it’s the right one and is important to maintain.

“These are horrible choices. On the one hand, if you don’t pay a ransom, you are putting an innocent life at risk. On the other hand, if you do, you’re fueling the very activity that’s put them at risk in the first place,” she said.

“The policy that’s been a decades-old policy of not paying ransom, I think is the right policy.”

Stahl questioned why the U.S. government couldn’t do what European nations do and pay the ransom while denying it publicly.

“We’d still be fueling their terror activity,” Monaco replied.

“Whether it’s hostage taking or whether it’s terrorist plots to kill Americans here in the homeland or elsewhere, [it] is not activity that the United States government should be in the business of funding.”

After the beheading of Sotloff and other American hostages, Monaco established a task force to review how the U.S. handles negotiating, which included meeting with the families.

But the no-ransom policy remains in place, though the Department of Justice has effectively promised not to prosecute a family or friends who raise and pay a ransom.

“It’s a better policy than what it was,” Art Sotloff said. “I mean, now it gives at least people the opportunity to try to save their family members. But I think it’s far from really solving the problem because there is still money that has to be raised and paid. And the average family just can’t do that.”