Skip to main content

harry potter - What evidence supports the idea that Voldemort (or others) could use magic to develop witches/wizards with genetically engineered/enhanced abilities?



I am seeking additional supporting canon evidence for the idea that within the Potterverse, it would be potentially possible to use magic to genetically engineer/enhance witches/wizards to have superior magical ability. Related to that is the question/idea. What same evidence might support the idea that muggles could eventually learn to use genetic engineering to introduce 'magic genes" into the mugggle gene pool, thus making magic accessible to the general population? If members prefer I can break this into two separate stack questions.


Evidence I believe which already support either/both of these scenarios include:


Magical abilities appear to be genetically inherited



  • We see numerous references to families in which magic appears pretty much to appear every generation.

  • The term "pureblood" is used to denote where such abilities are almost guaranteed.

  • Within wizarding families Only rare recessives (a.k.a. squibs) appear to not inherit such abilities.




J.K. Rowling: "Muggle-borns will have a witch or wizard somewhere on their family tree, in some cases many, many generations back. The gene resurfaces in some unexpected places." Harry Potter Wikia



Magical abilities appear to increase as individuals grow, mature and develop them (similar to inherited physical traits such as height/musculature)



"The Goblet of Fire" - page 217: Mad-Eye Moody "Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it -- you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get as much as a nosebleed."



We have seen the ability for cross-species types of transformation.:




  • Use of polyjuice potion with a cat hair made Hermione a mix of feline and human.

  • Transfiguration is commonplace

  • It is possible that even just temporarily these types of efforts extended down the genetic level in some way beyond just the surface appearance. If so, this would make such activities similar to muggle experiments in genetic splicing using cross-species genes. Too, that if there is a temporary genetic component, it could possibly be made more permanent and/or even inheritable.


Dedicated practitioners willing to commit the use of their own children



  • Draco's father was proud to raise his son to become a Death Eater. It is certainly in the realm of possibility that such parents would consent to efforts to genetically enhance their child's magical ability for a cause.


I also welcome counter-arguments/evidence why it would NOT be possible to do this.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more