Sure. But NihilCredo's point is actually broader than that.
When I adopt an importantly different new referent for a term, it's really not a good idea for me to carry forward old ideas associated with that term without re-evaluating them. It's a special case of the common problem of confusing the label for the referent.
In some cases, the confusion is obvious and easy to avoid. For example, a couple of years ago the U.S. adopted a new referent for the term "current President of the United States" that made previously true statements (e.g., "the current President of the United States is a member of the Republican party") suddenly false. This doesn't really confuse anyone; we understand that the referent for that label changes over time.
But "killing" isn't like that for most people. If I adopt an understanding of "killing" congruent with your comment above I ought to stop and ask myself things like "Is killing a bad thing? Why? Is there any reason I shouldn't go around killing everyone I can? What reason? Is there any reason I shouldn't kill myself every opportunity I get?" and so forth. But there's a strong chance I won't.
At some point it becomes less confusing to just adopt a new word.
In other words, the issue here is not whether magical therapy on Bellatrix is a justified killing or an unjustified killing, but whether it's useful or consistent to refer to it as any kind of killing at all.
Completely tangential to this: I have a lot of difficulty reconciling the idea that reliable psychiatric intervention to "heal" people of criminal tendencies exists in the HPverse with the idea that Azkaban exists there. It's as if a fictional world contained the ability to cure any disease, but wealthy and important people in that world were forced to die of diseases without being cured. I don't claim it's impossible -- human societies are perfectly capable of contradictions this absurd -- but it would be awfully difficult to defend.
but whether it's useful or consistent to refer to it as any kind of killing at all.
I was raised with fantasy and sci-fi. For me "death" has always meant "death-of-personality". Short of that, who cares? And if that's gone, who cares if the body is still there?
If I adopt an understanding of "killing" congruent with your comment above I ought to stop and ask myself things like "Is killing a bad thing?
Yeah, you should. And you should say "generally, yes". For exactly the same reasons that your current understanding of killing is that it's generally bad -- it's the destruction of a person.
- This thread has run its course. You will find newer threads in the discussion section.
Another discussion thread - the fourth - has reached the (arbitrary?) 500 comments threshold, so it's time for a new thread for Eliezer Yudkowsky's widely-praised Harry Potter fanfic.
Most of the paratext and fan-made resources are listed on Mr. LessWrong's author page. There is also AdeleneDawner's collection of most of the previously-published Author's Notes.
Older threads: one, two, three, four. By tag.
Newer threads are in the Discussion section, starting from Part 6.
Spoiler policy as suggested by Unnamed and approved by Eliezer, me, and at least three other upmodders:
It would also be quite sensible and welcome to continue the practice of declaring at the top of your post which chapters you are about to discuss, especially for newly-published ones, so that people who haven't yet seen them can stop reading in time.