The morality of love potions/Merope and Tom Sr. (Was: Snogging and Love Potions

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 152268

Potioncat:
> But I'll toss out a question or two. Did Tom Riddle know Merope was
> pregnant? What should his responsibility toward the baby have been?
<snip>

Alla:

I changed my mind, Potioncat.

I will answer on list. I don't think we had been given the exact 
answer whether Tom knew or not that Merope was pregnant, but if he 
knew my answer as to his responsibility towards the baby is NONE, 
absolutely none.

Since I absolutely view what Merope did to Tom as analogy to rape 
(even if it was not physically brutal, it was still rape IMO, since 
while in his right mind Tom wanted nothing to do with Merope and was 
forced to have sex with her), I do not think that rape victim should 
be forced to have anything to do with the baby conceived as a result 
of such rape.

I feel SO bad for Tom and get very angry when I think about what 
Merope did.

She WAS the victim of abuse, no question about it. Does it give her 
the right to commit crime? Not in my book.

Carol:
It is never right or justifiable, IMO, to condemn
our own child to a life of poverty and rejection even if we were
tricked into fathering or conceiving that child if it is in our power
to prevent that from happening.

Alla:

IMO neither man nor woman should ever be forced to do with the child 
conceived under such horrible circumstances. Would it be great if 
they managed to overcome their own trauma and love such child? 
Absolutely, but if they cannot, I think it is their absolute right to 
not have anything to do with their aggressor or the child and yes, in 
this circumstances in my book "gentle", abused Merope is an 
aggressor, because she forced this man to sleep with her against her 
will.


Carol:
Merope is in the position of a female rape victim who "asked for it."
She's now rejected, penniless, helpless.

Alla:

I thought Tom was in the victim's position, personally.


Carol: 
I realize that Tom Sr. would have been horrified to discover that he's
married to a girl he would consider a hag, wall-eyed and homely and
wholly unsuitable to a young man who had dreamed of marrying a pretty
girl in his own social class.

Alla:

I think he was just horrified to discover that he was forced to sleep 
with girl he did not want to sleep with, for months. 


 Carol, knowing that she's once again taking an unpopular stand that
will be regarded as "wrong" by three-quarters of the list members

Alla:

I have no right to say that anybody is right or wrong in their 
positions.

But I do find your position to be very different from mine, that's 
true.