No, I don't want to forget all the times when Darcy beat me to the best answer on Mahalo Answers! Although these are bad memories, I don't want to forget them, as if I forgot, I would not be as motivated now to get the best answer!

I wouldn't want to risk my personality changing, just to forget a bad memory.

Even if the memory was very bad, and there are scars, you will still know where the scar came from. Let's say the memory was of getting into an accident or something traumatic which caused you to physically get hurt from it. You may not remember the experience, yet if you look in the mirror and see that you were missing a limb, then you would still remember that something bad happened.

I think it makes you stronger to live with bad memories. Life is not always filled with good memories, and take a magic pill does not always fix things in our lives. I think that it's better for the person to live with all kinds of memories, good and bad, as we learn from our bad memories sometimes. If we forgot everything just because it was bad, we would be living in a false sense of reality.

Do I think this is ethical?

No, I don't think this is ethical. What if they get rid of the best memories?

I don't mind if others use it, but it's not for me. It's a person's choice if they want to use this pill, and I don't think it would hurt anyone else, unless the memory was shared with someone else.
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Ethics is relative - each individual will come to grips with what they believe is ethical, and each will differ from the other to some degree. I believe there's a saying that goes "an ethical man knows not to cheat on his wife; a moral man actually won't."

I find the idea difficult to comprehend for the purpose of civilian rehabilitation - it's an unchecked drug that could alter memories it shouldn't and could possibly change the user's personality. If there were a standardized test for what counts as a "stressful" event that required drug therapy, then there wouldn't be a problem, though I doubt such a test would be easy to create. What is stressful is just like opinions on ethics - everybody finds different things stressful to different degrees.

For myself personally, I would not take them. My personality is the way it is because of the memories I have, and I have the abilities and skill traits that I have due to memorization and muscle memory, as well as mental retention. I wouldn't trade my personality and abilities to get rid of one unwanted memory - then again, I've not had the world's worst problems or situations, either. As stated before, it's all relative.
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I think that everything that happens to us shapes us in some way. How we respond to situations is totally up to us. If we forget the bad things, then we'd have to forget the associated lessons learned, making it likely that we'll repeat mistakes.

We retain memories for a reason. We abuse this by holding grudges and wallowing in the past, but to mess with that would mess with our very humanity.
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Wow.

I think I would take the drug.

It would be like erasing regret.
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No, I would not take it. I do have some traumatic memories that I wish I could forget, but I also realize that these have helped shape my personality and my perception of the world. I would be afraid of how this type of drug would alter my personality.

I don't think it is unethical, and if other people wanted to try it, I think they should be allowed. However, personally, I don't think it is healthy, and I would never participate. I would be very interested in the results, though. I can see where it would be beneficial to people with debilitating post-traumatic stress, but I am afraid a drug like this would be horribly misused, say to forget a bad relationship, for example.

Before I even read the article, this question made me think of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It is one of my favorite movies and deals with this exact topic (only in the movie it is a procedure, not a pill). Taking the easy way out is never as fun as it seems.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
-Alexander Pope
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If I had suffered such a traumatic experience that I couldn't function normally in society, I might be willing to do just about anything to get rid of the traumatic memories.
I wouldn't be able to say for sure if I think others should do the same. Each situation would have to be weighted out.
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There was actually an episode of Boston Legal(one of my favorite shows) that dealt with this. It was really good and gave great looks into both sides of the story.
Source(s):
http://www.tv.com/boston-legal/selling-sickness/episode/952932/summary.html
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=63104
http://download-boston-legal-episodes.edogo.com/index.php/season-3/episode1...

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No and yes. I wouldn't take this pill, because I wouldn't be the person I am now. Taking a pill like that is akin to living in the society of Fahrenheit 451. You will be happy, or at least you think that you will be happy, but you won't really be yourself anymore. It would also eliminate most of the "Learn from your mistakes" idea, because most mistakes I made aren't exactly great memories. I don't really care how bad the memory is, I would never want to use a pill like that. About whether it is ethical...I don't think that it really is. You're basically cutting the bad chunks out of someone's being with a pretty big knife. It might look like a great option right now, but later in the future we may well look back on this pill the way we now look at lobotomy. However, I do realize that there are certain people such as those suffering from mental disorders due to war who might have use of this pill. In that case I think it would be alright, though only with the person's consent.
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I think that this is something that you cannot in all honestly answer until you are in the situation itself. Given the situation that it would be used for, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the extensive amount of therapy that would be involved - this is not a step that anyone could take lightly. Many people with PTSD have huge problems doing everyday things, if this treatment could lessen the intensity of the memories and alleviate their problems, I say go for it.

If used, of course guidelines should laid out for the treatment of people needing it.
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Hmm... I would take it, but only as an absolute last resort. Like if I was so debilitated by the traumatic experience that I couldn't function, was spiraling downwards and wasn't responding well to any "normal" treatment... then yeah, I'd pop the pill for as short of a period of time as I could get away with. I'd let a therapist slowly introduce the traumatic event to me like Angela, you don't remember this right now, but something happened and it was hard on you, etc. Let them introduce it in a gentle, non-traumatic manner. Then let me stop taking the drug and get the memory back, prepared, and hopefully I'd be able to handle it.

That would only be as a last resort, and I'd have to be in bad enough condition that it would be worth risking it being permanent, wiping good memories, or even changing my personality.

I personally don't see any reason why it'd be unethical.
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I think there would be some memories I would like to forget, but I would have to think long and hard about erasing those memories. Still, it's tempting. I will occasionally get flashbacks of memories I would just as soon forget.

I think a bad memory would be something that causes flashbacks to the point where it incapacitates you. Something like post traumatic stress disorder or something similar.

I think it is ethical only if the person who takes it agrees to it and it erases memories for health reasons.
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I didn't even have to read the list of side effects to know that, no, I would not take such a pill.

Having post-traumatic stress disorder due to a series of harrowing and traumatic events, I can't think of this as a hypothetical question of philosophy or ethicality. Though erasing my memories would relieve a considerable amount of stress on my daily life and mental state, doing so would not erase the event itself.

I would rather struggle with my memories than forget the lessons of humanity and self they imparted. Not only do they increase my capacity for sympathy and understanding the causes of others' mental "failings", they make me more aware of situations that would endanger myself and those I love.
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It didn't say it would block out your understanding or knowledge of the event (nor could it without hindering your ability to function). Say you are brutally raped and the entire event is seared into your memory. My understanding is that you would know you were raped, know what happened from the accounts given to you, but not be able to remember the actual event. Sounds very useful to me.
Yes I would take it and yes I believe it is ethical though I don't believe it is really possible to do something unethical to yourself. This should definitely be a controlled substance dispensed only after psychological evaluation, but I can see it as being a useful tool.
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