The Killing Curse

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 77083

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arcturusfelire" 
<carlpelleg at a...> wrote:
> I have been a member of this group for a while now but I haven't 
had any questiones or any thoughts to add. Well now I do.
>
Hi Carl,
I am Valky
 
Carl wrote:
> My question is what is the underlying nature of the Killing Curse.
> 
> Does it just kill, like if somebody was shot. I ask this because if 
> it just kills a person then it could be used as a legal method for 
> giving the death penalty or if you want to put somebody who is sick 
> and will die anyway out of their misery.
> 
> Or does getting hit by the Killing Curse do something else. Like 
send your soul to hell, destory your soul, banish it, or something 
else of that nature. Like being hit with the Curse stops the normal 
process when a person dies. If this is true then it would more than 
likely account for the reason its an Unforgivable.
> I would like to know because it seems that if it just kills a 
person than it could be used for legal/medical purposes.
> 
> 
Valky replies:
I always relate the matter of killing to a story I was told about my 
Grandfather when I was younger. 
He was a sharp shooter by trade he performed it for entertainment and 
travelled the world with his wife and daughter (my mother) performing 
skill shots with rifles and bow and arrow.
Being so skilled with a rifle he was also valuable to the English 
army during his years of service in the Second World war. He served 
as a sniper. He did this for a long time and one could imagine what 
kind of shooting he was required to do. 
He left service discharged honourably not long before the war ended. 
The story he brought back with him about killing people is harrowing. 
I was told that for him the most profound feeling that he had after 
sniping someone was the feeling of having taken something from them. 
If you take someone's possession from them you may feel some remorse 
and want to return it to them, he said the thing about taking a life 
is that you can't give it back. For my Grandfather it was a 
revelation of his authority and control in the world. It humbled him 
and he would say that is the realisation of the authority of man. 
Knowing this is how we know the difference between us and the divine 
and he said it made him realise that as a man he had no authority to 
give someone back life and so no authority to take one from anyone. 

For me the unforgivable nature of a killing curse is explained in 
this story. Hence and answer to any use of it as a death penalty for 
crime. But not an answer to your question about euthanasia. 
Not so sure about that one.