They are able to cure basically anything. And yet, they allow millions of Muggles (including children) to die painfully of cancer and other nasty diseases.
Why?
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1Wizards can do a lot of things, but I don't believe there's any canon indication that they can cure cancer.– F1KrazyCommented May 16, 2018 at 18:39
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2@F1Krazy - Actually they can cure any mundane disease– ValorumCommented May 16, 2018 at 18:50
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1Any proof wizards can cure cancer? Cancer isn't as mundane.– Bernard the BearCommented May 16, 2018 at 19:25
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6@BernardtheBear - Mundane as in non-magical; "I decided that, broadly speaking, wizards would have the power to correct or override ‘mundane’ nature, but not ‘magical’ nature. Therefore, a wizard could catch anything a Muggle might catch, but he could cure all of it;" - pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/illness-and-disability– ValorumCommented May 16, 2018 at 19:32
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3Not Opinion Based. Any question that has a canon answer is automatically not opinion-based, and this clearly has a canon answer.– TheAshCommented May 16, 2018 at 19:49
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1 Answer
This is directly addressed in the opening of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
“But what does a Ministry of Magic do?”
“Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there’s still witches an’ wizards up an’ down the country.”
“Why?”
“Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we’re best left alone.”
So yes, it would appear that the wizarding world is callously indifferent to the plight of Muggles or at least recognises that if they provide magical help, it might expose their world and make them into a resource to be exploited.
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1It's odd that they don't see this as an opportunity to become obscenely rich. Commented May 16, 2018 at 19:00
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2What bugs me is that apparently wizards don't care about the environment either, even though everyone, even wizards, would benefit if they used magic to clean it up. I'm picturing wizard recycling shops where they just continuously transfigure garbage into something useful.– KaiCommented May 16, 2018 at 19:10
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11@MissMonicaE - Honestly I don't think the worldbuilding in HP holds up that well once you start to prod and poke at it.– ValorumCommented May 16, 2018 at 19:11
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5Wizards in HP are not the most caring type. They still hold house elves slave and see themselves above over humanoid creatures. Their prison system was basically torture. It was quite clear in the book that wizardkind aren't nobody's angel. Commented May 16, 2018 at 19:28
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