Identifying with Muggles - The Dursley and 'Terrifying' Abuse

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 158264

 Alla wrote:

As to legal obligations in the US, somebody upthread brought the Texas 
Law - and this is what it is for me in the nutshell - aunt has an 
obligation to save a nephew or be held criminally negligent, really to 
me it is very simple.

Actually, I am not even sure if this is true in all states, since I 
don't deal with family law, but IMO it really really should be.


Julie:
An aunt has an obligation to save a nephew if he is in grave danger
at a given moment, e.g., he is about to be run over by a truck. Or
at least to *attempt* to save him (if jumping in to save him would 
mean her death--she'd get run over by said truck--then I think the
"legal" part of the obligation might be in doubt, though not the
moral obligation in most cases). But an aunt does NOT have a legal
obligation to provide protection for a nephew in *potential* danger,
e.g., the Mob has taken out a hit on him because his father killed
the big boss. That kind of protection is the legal responsibility
of the government via the police, FBI, etc. 
 
I would equate the position of the Dursleys with the second example.
They don't have any legal obligation to provide long-standing 
protection for Harry, especially if it puts their lives in danger.
It would be morally upstanding of them to do so, but legally I
don't know of any country that would require it. Equally, they have
no legal obligation to take him in and raise him. (In fact any 
parent can turn his/her child over to the government if he/she is
incapable of or unwilling to raise the child for whatever reason.)
Moral obligation again, that is something else.
 
Julie, who doesn't believe the Durlseys have any legal obligations
to baby!Harry at all, only moral ones.
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]