Veritaserum

[joeblackish]

No: HPFGUIDX 30897


> It doesn't seem inconsistent to me. I believe that they don't use 
> Veritaserum for the same reasons the (American) police can't use 
> sodium pentathol or lie detectors whenever they wish to elicit a 
> confession -- because our system was intended to affirm and 
> acknowledge the fundamental autonomy of each American citizen, even 
> those suspected of the most heinous crimes.


Actually, that is not why those are not used to procure evidence.  
Both lie detectors and sodium pentathol are inadmissable in court 
because of their relatively low accuracy rates.  It has nothing to do 
with the court system or police being concerned with a citizen's 
autonomy.  Lie detectors are terribly unreliable, and thus to use one 
would at the same time provide no definite new information and also 
offer a false sense of security.

If we had infallible truth detectors, I believe that we most 
definitely would being using them in our courts.  The wizarding world 
does have this in the form of Veritaserum.  Also, I really don't see 
the Ministry respecting their citizens in the way you are suggesting.  
If they are willing to authorize use of unforgivable curses on 
suspected Death Eaters, send people to Azkaban for life with no trial, 
hold trials for certain people only as a show, etc, it seems to me 
completely in character for them to use Veritaserum to get the truth 
out of suspected Death Eaters in t