The problem of moral obligation to preserve or erase memories in trauma treatment

Abstract

People who have experienced traumatic events often suffer from the burden of painful memories. Recent advances in neuropharmaceuticals and neurotechnologies have enabled the modification and even erasure of traumatic memories, raising both therapeutic hopes and ethical concerns. One view argues that individuals have a moral obligation to preserve traumatic memories; therefore, erasing such memories amounts to an evasion of moral obligations and is therefore unacceptable. However, neither deontological ethics nor rule consequentialism can justify the claim that patients have an obligation to preserve their traumatic memories. In fact, memory erasure, as a transformative experience, situates individuals within a context of decision-making under uncertainty, thereby highlighting their moral obligations to themselves. Trauma survivors may seek memory erasure technologies as a way of honoring their moral obligations to their past, present, and future selves. In this sense, such interventions may be regarded as morally permissible.