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Monday, September 29, 2008
"Freedom of Memory Today"
Someday, we may be able to pharmaceutically dampen or erase traumatic memories from the recent past. Such technologies raise many interesting legal and ethical questions. On occasion, though, questions about memory erasure already arise. In this four-page article in the journal Neuroethics, I discuss a real-life case of intentional memory erasure and some of the issues it raises. The case reveals why the contours of our "freedom of memory"--our limited bundle of rights to control our own memories and be free of outside control--already warrant some attention.
Posted by Adam Kolber on September 29, 2008 at 11:25 AM in Information and Technology | Permalink
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Comments
For purposes of treating victims of recent traumatic events, researchers are looking for drugs that have retrograde amnestic effects (i.e., they interfere with memories formed prior to consuming the drug). Perhaps alcohol can have some retrograde amnestic effects in high doses. But I suspect alcohol has a greater anterograde amnestic effect (i.e., it's harder to form new memories when already very intoxicated).
Posted by: Adam Kolber | Sep 29, 2008 12:41:33 PM
Don't we already have a 21A right to do that?
Posted by: Chris | Sep 29, 2008 12:19:56 PM
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