[HPforGrownups] Re: Unbreakable Vows

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 165748

>Pippin:
>Well, yes. The doctor must cease treatment at your request, but
>if he does it because he specifically  wants to kill you, it's a crime.

Bart:
One additional factor. There's a war going on (whether or not it is recognized as one), and, during times of war, rules change. This has come up as a problem in a number of recent armed conflicts because there are advantages and disadvantages to having an armed conflict be a war, and, in trying to get only the advantages and none of the disadvantages, things turn into a general mess, with it being unclear what is "legal" and what is not. Based on the timing of the novels, however, if JKR had a war/nonwar in mind, it would have been the Belfast branch of the IRA vs. Great Britain, where GB didn't want to call it a war, because that would have legitimitized the IRA, but that meant they had to treat it as criminal activity, and were thus limited in their legal ability to apply military solutions.

Bart