Bad memories begone!

There have been recent debates regarding the matter of ethics in deliberately deleting human memories. Some argue that it is completely ethical for an individual to delete traumatic memories that are preventing them from living a normal life, and others argue that it is completely unethical. Many of those arguing against deleting memories explain that memories are what make us who we are and make us behave the way we do and that to delete our memories is to alter, change, and destroy who we are as individuals.

            Recent studies at the Radbound University Nijmegan in the Netherlands have shown that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) allows individuals to delete traumatic memories. The study shows that conducting ECT while an individual is retrieving a particular traumatic memory will allow for that memory to be deleted in that individual’s mind. The individuals that went ECT were then asked multiple choice questions a week later regarding the traumatic event they went through and they performed very poorly on these exams because they couldn’t recall the event or the details of the event.

            However there have been studies and arguments by many scientists including Dr. Arthur Caplan, head of the division of the Bioethics department at NYU, that claim that deleting memories does not change the individual’s personality.

            Regardless of whether an individual’s personality is altered or not after they have deleted particular memories doesn’t mean that their future will not be altered. Altering an individual’s memory will allow them to lose potential ambitions for the future; if many of our social justice leaders underwent memory deletion they probably would not have fought for the causes they dedicated their life to and would not have created a positive impact in the world. Those traumatic memories were what motivated them to change the world and the society we live in to prevent others from experiencing those memories.

            However there are individuals who suffer from PTSD and by deleting those memories it could allow them to live a better life, Dr. Liao and Sandberg explain that if deleting a memory doesn’t endanger the individual or the people around them then it should be up to them whether they decide to delete the memory or not.

            As memory modification techniques increase the debates of whether it is ethical to delete an individual’s memory will continue to increase as well. Ethical boundaries and limits also have to be set regarding what permits an individual from deleting a memory. Does deleting an individual’s memory simply because it is unpleasant make it ok if it doesn’t harm the individual or those around them or do they have to have PTSD in order for memory deletion to be considered ethical? All of these are questions and debates that we will see increasing throughout the next few years as MMTs continue to increase.

Sources: 

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/the-ethics-of-erasing-bad-memories/362110/

Liao, S. M., & Sandberg, A. (2008). The Normativity of Memory Modification. Neuroethics. 1(2), 85-99, doi:10.1007/s12512-008-9009-5

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