Moral philosopher questions memory manipulation
April 29, 2008Is 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
-
The political effects of existential fear
Oct 18, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
4
-
You can wash away your troubles, with soap
Oct 05, 2011 |
4 / 5 (3) |
1
-
ASAM releases new definition of addiction
Aug 15, 2011 |
3 / 5 (2) |
1
-
German parliament OKs genetic embryo tests
Jul 07, 2011 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
Mood and experience: Life comes at you
Jun 28, 2011 |
4 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (33) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (5) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
Bohr-Einstein debate: why did Bohr not simply say...
Feb 06, 2012
-
Best/Worst U.S. Presidents
Jan 31, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - History & Humanities
More news stories
Putting the magic into maths
Queen Mary, University of London has developed a new educational resource for teachers to help students use amazing magic tricks to learn about maths.
27 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
Australian women reject 'I love u' texts
Australian women may have embraced the digital era, but they prefer a face-to-face declaration of affection to an "I love u" text and find men addicted to their mobile phones a major turnoff.
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
4 hours ago |
1 / 5 (1) |
1
A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation
(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...
US workers are 'giving away the store,' costing firms billions
Nearly 70 percent of the nation's service employees give away free goods and services from hamburgers to cable TV costing companies billions of dollars a year, according to a groundbreaking study.
Other Sciences / Economics & Business
Feb 09, 2012 |
3 / 5 (5) |
11
Employers feel no love for unscrupulous practice of 'service sweethearting'
A new study led by two Florida State University marketing professors finds that some frontline service employees who are rewarded for hikes in customer loyalty and satisfaction also may engage in "service ...
Other Sciences / Economics & Business
Feb 10, 2012 |
3.3 / 5 (3) |
10
With climate change, today's '100-year floods' may happen every three to 20 years: research
Last August, Hurricane Irene spun through the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, leaving widespread wreckage in its wake. The Category 3 storm whipped up water levels, generating storm surges ...
Researchers make better heat sensor based on butterfly wings
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long known that butterfly wings produce their iridescent colors by bouncing light around and between tiny ridges in structures made of chitin. More recently they’ve discovered ...
Manipulating genes with hidden TALENs
(PhysOrg.com) -- A better understanding of gene function in model plant and animal systems could be used to develop useful traits in livestock and crop plants, and might someday lead to developments in stem ...
Alien matter in the solar system: A galactic mismatch
This just in: The Solar System is different from the space just outside it.
Couples in the same place emotionally stay together, study says
(Medical Xpress) -- Despite lifes ups and downs, couples whose feelings are in sync consistently over time are more likely to stay together, says a University of California, Davis, study.
Georgia Tech develops software for the rapid analysis of foodborne pathogens
2011 brought two of the deadliest bacterial outbreaks the world has seen during the last 25 years. The two epidemics accounted for more than 4,200 cases of infectious disease and 80 deaths. Software developed at Georgia Tech ...
Apr 29, 2008
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Apr 29, 2008
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
May 01, 2008
Rank: not rated yet
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? )