Amortentia and re The morality of love potions/Merope and Tom Sr.

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 152324

> Alla:
> 
> Why is that? He was forced to sleep with somebody who he would not 
> sleep with while in his right mind. How is it not rape? Would you say 
> that if woman would drank a day rape drug in her drink and forced to 
> sleep with someone, it is not rape too?
> 

Pippin:
A person who takes a date rape drug loses all control over their actions.
But the action of a love potion is specifically *not* the Imperius curse. 
Dumbledore takes pains to distinguish between them.

There is nothing in canon to say that if Romilda told Lovepotion!Ron to 
jump off a cliff he would do it. A love potion would make Tom want to sleep 
with or marry Merope-- but it wouldn't give him no choice in the matter. 
 I mean, he could  want to sleep with her or marry her and not do it. 

He could take a long sea  voyage or a short cold shower. 

Someone who's taken a date rape drug loses all their inhibitions -- there's
no canon that a love potion has that effect. 


My knowledge of pre WWII marriage customs mostly comes from 
Agatha Christie novels and I could be wrong, but AFAIK even in the 
early 20th century it was  not very easy to get a divorce. According to 
Wikipedia, a man could not receive a divorce on grounds other than 
adultery in England until 1969. 

Many modern jurisdictions allow annulment if it can be proved that one of the 
parties was mentally incompetent at the time of the marriage for example
as a result of drugs or alcohol. I am not sure what  the law in England is or 
was in the 1920's but  unless and until the marriage was legally annulled 
Tom would be obliged to support his wife and child. Claiming that he
was hoodwinked would not be enough -- he would have had to *prove*
it. In any case he would be responsible for supporting the child -- 
annulment does not make a child illegitimate.

If  Merope had used makeup or skillful dressmaking instead of a love potion
to hide her defects and  make herself more attractive than she was without 
them, the law would not excuse Tom from his duties to his wife or child. 
After all, she would one day grow old and lose her looks, or she, like Bill,
could have lost them in an accident.

Pippin