Bella’s law regarding no non-consensual turning of mates seems like it would be hard to enforce. If a vampire finds their mate and bites them before the Golden Empire can interfere, then even if the Empire finds out before the turning is finished, there’s no real way to prove that it was nonconsensual. The mate will be incoherent during the turning process, and after turning will a. have fuzzy memories of right before the turning, and b. be more than willing to lie on behalf of their own mate. The only real way around this is for the Empire to isolate the mate during turning, perhaps applying Alec in order to help them, and then quiz them before they see their mate. However, it also seems that this could be gotten around by simply making sure that the turning is finished before the Empire finds them. It is mentioned that Alice’s weekly check for eye color might find the turning, but I should imagine that turning through a syringe should not affect eye color. How might this be enforced?
They can interview the turning mate about whether they got permission or not, with Edward or Maggie or an adequately equipped Addy present.
I’m not sure what you mean about turning through a syringe and eye color. Newborns universally have bright red eyes, unaffected by diet until a couple months in (animal blood) or a year in (human blood). What Alice might notice is, when she’s checking on Turner, that Turnee is physically nearby.
True. Okay. I forgot that they have perfect supernatural lie detection available.
This seems like a remarkably harsh rule, since the dynamics of the mate bond with a human provide sufficient incentive to turn the mate without permission—whether permission would have been granted or not—that many people will do it, and it seems likely that a large number of them will successfully finish the turning and bond to their mate, necessitating large punishments for both the perpetrator and the victim of an act of which the victim was entirely innocent and which the victim is overwhelmingly likely to retroactively endorse. Leaving arguments of the morality of nonconsensual turning aside, a law that seems so likely to lead to the Empire carrying out so many morally questionable punishments seems suspect.
That one’s not going to carry a death penalty. It is true and obvious that mates would generally still prefer to turn without permission than let their mates die. The rules accomplish two things:
a) strongly encourage at least a good-faith attempt at convincing the mate first;
b) serve signaling purposes to human societies they later reveal themselves to (“no, of course kidnapping humans to turn them is illegal; it carries an N year hiding sentence, and if we can humanely arrange for them to serve it without said mate, we do”, as opposed to “yeah, if one of us wants to snag and vamp one of you badly enough it’s gonna happen and we’ll throw them an engagement party, sucks to be you”).
Also, any penalty short of death is going to be relatively little actual deterrent, in the long run. It’ll encourage vampires to make a strong attempt to convince their mate, but if that isn’t possible they will be quite willing to simply kidnap and turn them, in the sure knowledge that they will forgive them once turned, and make sure that the bond is fully established before the Empire intervenes so that they aren’t serving N years hidden in the absence of their mate.
Bella’s law regarding no non-consensual turning of mates seems like it would be hard to enforce. If a vampire finds their mate and bites them before the Golden Empire can interfere, then even if the Empire finds out before the turning is finished, there’s no real way to prove that it was nonconsensual. The mate will be incoherent during the turning process, and after turning will a. have fuzzy memories of right before the turning, and b. be more than willing to lie on behalf of their own mate. The only real way around this is for the Empire to isolate the mate during turning, perhaps applying Alec in order to help them, and then quiz them before they see their mate. However, it also seems that this could be gotten around by simply making sure that the turning is finished before the Empire finds them. It is mentioned that Alice’s weekly check for eye color might find the turning, but I should imagine that turning through a syringe should not affect eye color. How might this be enforced?
They can interview the turning mate about whether they got permission or not, with Edward or Maggie or an adequately equipped Addy present.
I’m not sure what you mean about turning through a syringe and eye color. Newborns universally have bright red eyes, unaffected by diet until a couple months in (animal blood) or a year in (human blood). What Alice might notice is, when she’s checking on Turner, that Turnee is physically nearby.
True. Okay. I forgot that they have perfect supernatural lie detection available.
This seems like a remarkably harsh rule, since the dynamics of the mate bond with a human provide sufficient incentive to turn the mate without permission—whether permission would have been granted or not—that many people will do it, and it seems likely that a large number of them will successfully finish the turning and bond to their mate, necessitating large punishments for both the perpetrator and the victim of an act of which the victim was entirely innocent and which the victim is overwhelmingly likely to retroactively endorse. Leaving arguments of the morality of nonconsensual turning aside, a law that seems so likely to lead to the Empire carrying out so many morally questionable punishments seems suspect.
That one’s not going to carry a death penalty. It is true and obvious that mates would generally still prefer to turn without permission than let their mates die. The rules accomplish two things:
a) strongly encourage at least a good-faith attempt at convincing the mate first;
b) serve signaling purposes to human societies they later reveal themselves to (“no, of course kidnapping humans to turn them is illegal; it carries an N year hiding sentence, and if we can humanely arrange for them to serve it without said mate, we do”, as opposed to “yeah, if one of us wants to snag and vamp one of you badly enough it’s gonna happen and we’ll throw them an engagement party, sucks to be you”).
In a manner of speaking.
Also, any penalty short of death is going to be relatively little actual deterrent, in the long run. It’ll encourage vampires to make a strong attempt to convince their mate, but if that isn’t possible they will be quite willing to simply kidnap and turn them, in the sure knowledge that they will forgive them once turned, and make sure that the bond is fully established before the Empire intervenes so that they aren’t serving N years hidden in the absence of their mate.