Requiescat in Pace: Unforgivables

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 174879

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Lee Kaiwen <leekaiwen at ...> wrote:

<snipping judiciously--I think all attributions are clear, here>

> LK> Since you assert it, please tell us how many "legal definitions"
> LK> of torture there are.
> 
> DG> From the United States Criminal Code:
> 
> No, Dennis, that's not what I asked for. You stated there are many 
> definitions of murder, as if that had something to do with torture. 
> I asked you HOW MANY legal definitions of torture there were, but 
> what you gave me is a single definition of torture, and one which, 
> at that, is really more concerned with defining the conditions under 
> which torture can occur than it is with defining the act itself.
> 
> But since you've introduced it, let's take a look. Filtering out the 
> bits defining the conditions, we find the US Code defines torture as
> 
> "an act committed by a person ... specifically intended to inflict 
> severe physical or mental pain or suffering ... upon another 
> person...."

I'm not Dennis and won't speak for him, but it seemed to me that a
significant part of his argument was precisely that the "bits defining
the conditions" were important in approaching a definition of torture,
and a discussion of the events in the book that we're arguing about.

This thread is going around in circles because there are two divergent
viewpoints here that I'm not sure are reconcilable:  one is insisting
that Crucio is torture, end of story, forever and always; the other is
arguing for circumstances figuring into what is torture and what is
not.  In any case, both lines of argument unavoidably invoke some
hypothetics (to steal the term from a favorite writer of mine).

-Nora doesn't think this will change anyone's mind, but it's always
easier with the basic issues defined