Moral philosopher questions memory manipulation

Is medicated memory manipulation ethically sound? And perhaps more importantly, who should be charged with the decision to deliver such a treatment: patient or physician?

Elisa Hurley, a philosophy professor, is seeking answers to these questions in her research currently underway at The University of Western Ontario.

In the Academy Award-winning film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a fictional, non-surgical procedure called ‘targeted memory erasure’ is used to delete painful memories the afflicted wish to forget – permanently.

And while the story’s science-fiction based concept earned the movie an Oscar for best original screenplay, real-life scientists are conducting clinical trials today using beta-blockers – drugs traditionally used for varying heart conditions – for manipulating the memories of people, who may go on to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Hurley says while the real threat of developing PTSD might be a good enough reason to use beta-blockers as a preventative measure, she also wants policy makers to consider the ramifications of what such a treatment may mean to a person’s moral well-being.

“Beta-blockers do not cause amnesia. Rather they make memories less vivid, detailed and arousing,” explains Hurley, who specializes in bioethics. “They lessen the emotional impact when someone is recalling upsetting events.”

Citing examples of a woman who has been brutally raped or a soldier who has killed while serving in the military, Hurley says, “In types of trauma involving interpersonal violence, such as sexual violence, torture, combat stress, and genocide, emotional memories may play a crucial role in one’s moral recovery.”

With respect to the military case, she adds, “I suggest that dampening emotional responses such as guilt, revulsion, and regret to someone’s participation in wrongdoing may undermine an appropriate understanding by the person of his or her moral responsibility.”

Source: University of Western Ontario

   

• Mercury_01 - Apr 29, 2008
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  I certainly would'nt want any doctor manipulating my mammaries, especially while I am under aneshesia, with one purple sock on and smeared lipstick...
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• fredrick - Apr 29, 2008
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  disturbing, M_01.
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• Arthur_Dent - May 01, 2008
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  IF I were permitted my choice, then
  
  a) hypnosis, to de-nature the memory, or to mitigate it ( make one's relationship with it more-rational, less-emotional ), would be offered first ( why the drug-culture we have? )
  
  b) patient-centrism, not doctor-centrism, in treatment,
  but that requires competent-enough patients...
  
  ...
  
  Here's a segment of a document explaining how memory-erasing drug is used in torture...
  
  "There are three primary truth serums.
  
  Here they are.
  
  Scopolamine (scopolamine hydrobromide; first word pronounced: skoh-PAW-lah-mean), also known by another name -- hyoscine (hyoscine hydrobromide). It is colorless, odorless and tasteless. Its clinical uses are primarily as a sedative, and applied locally (directly) as a mydriatic, which causes the pupil of the eye to dilate. When used as a sedative, the primary uses are to combat vertigo and motion sickness. When used with morphine and pentobarbital, to a woman in labor, it produces a "twilight sleep." It is also used as a premedication preliminary to surgery anesthesia.
  
  Since scopolamine completely blocks the formation of memories, unlike most date-rape drugs used in the United States and elsewhere, it is usually impossible for victims to ever identify their aggressors (or interrogators, if you were a prisoner).
  
  To use scopolamine most effectively to get a prisoner to tell you what he or she knows, the key is where you inject it, and in what amounts. Normally it is introduced into the body by a transdermal patch or intravenously in the arm. However, if you inject it into the spine (amount classified), it causes absolutely incredible pain, accompanied by violent convulsions and seizures. If injected into the spine in the appropriate amount, more than 95% of all prisoners will tell the truth -- not something fabricated to stop the pain -- within 24 hours (Source: classified)."
  
  -shrug-
  
  Since the right to say NO to medication is not permitted to many, it begs the question of what "rights" are, doesn't it?
  
  https://secure.wi...lligence
  for that document's entirety, if you care to see it.
  
  ( the "moral responsibility" bit in the original article is comical, given the military context being considered:
  how can such concerns be permitted to hobble enforcement-authority?
  ( national, smaller-scale, alliance, whatever scale, it seems to be invariant,
  from schoolyard gangs/bullying on up )
  
  History shows us that enforcement-authority /does not/ permit morality to interfere with it.
  
  Why do we pretend otherwise? )
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