Something I'd like to see in the Books

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 83076

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "junediamanti" 
<june.diamanti at b...> wrote:
<snip>
> Is it me or is everyone just wand happy? There seems to be the
> minimum of restraint on the entire wizarding population <snip>. 
Now there may well be considerable rules that are in place and that 
we are just not aware of - and that's quite possible because there's 
an awful lot of information that we don't have about the WW yet, and 
that would hold up the story unbearably if JKR were to constantly go 
on a major narrative digression to sort this out for us.
<snip> 
> All the same, I would have liked to see some ethical training in 
the Hogwarts curriculum. <snip>

Laura:

This bears on the discussion a little while ago about the ethics of 
legilimency.  The absence of any reference to a code of behavior, be 
it moral/ethical or legal, is conspicuous.  Laws seem to spring up 
in the WW sort of arbitrarily.  There are 3 curses that are 
Unforgivable, but aren't there lots of ways to inflict damage on 
people (and property, come to that) that should be illegal too, if 
not Unforgivable?  And what about magic that doesn't necessarily 
harm people but interferes with their free will?  We had a long 
discussion about erasing people's memories, for instance.  And I 
seem to recall a reference to love potions being illegal-maybe in 
GoF.  But there doesn't seem to be any comprehensive list of rules 
and regs to which the WW can refer, nor does there seem to be any 
person or persons who are ethical experts for the WW.

I would guess that it's a combination of wanting to avoid religious 
controversy and not wanting to slow down the telling of the stories 
that has made JKR stay away from the idea of moral training.  But I 
would love to see her ideas about it in some context.  Yet another 
textbook for JKR to write, perhaps...along with Snape's bio, a 
history of the Marauders, a detailed description of the dark arts 
and the differences between curses, hexes and jinxes, etc etc.