[HPforGrownups] Elf Beheading?

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 102328

Tiggersong wrote:
Sure, it's taking a life.  But wouldn't it also be a kindness?  Kreacher's
*not* happy at all.  Wouldn't it be kinder to him to ... put him out of his
misery?

Lady Macbeth wrote:
Personally, I agree with you.  However, there are many who would not, and I
am certain that Jo is one of them.  In writing OotP, she made a very vivid
point about what Harry and Co. thought of the elf heads on the wall.  That
suggests that it's also how she (as the writer) feels.  Yes, it WOULD be the
humane thing for him.  But, we also live in a society that believes the
"humane" thing to do is to let terminal patients wither away under chemicals
and cancer, or stay a living vegetable that can't act or react to anyone
around them, or live off of a machine that they would die in two minutes
without.  There are even some people who are that way with pets - my husband
is one of them.  He let his dog suffer from deteriorating old age and
complications that go with it (she couldn't walk without pain, had little
control over her bladder, puked up the most foul-smelling liquid every time
she tried to eat), until after the vet tried a dozen different meds on her
and she was still declining.  She was only a couple hours away from dying on
her own when he finally agreed to have her put to sleep.

For some, humane is letting a person or creature (or Kreacher) suffer on in
life with the hope that they will some day "get better".  That's the route
that I'm afraid is going to be in store for Kreacher in these books - after
all, even Dumbledore, who's lived so long that he should know better,
wouldn't see Kreacher dead for any reason, even if it were just to put him
out of his misery.

-Lady Macbeth


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