Sunday, March 1, 2009

A Pill That Can Erase a Bad Memory? 

NO WAY?

Scientists said that they may have discovered a pill that could erase someone's bad memories that they have had in the past? Could this be possible? They said that they could take an existing blood-pressure pill and it can be used to weaken or erase bad memories in people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. 
Colleagues from the University of Amsterdam decided to show a picture of spiders with mild shock to some test subjects that would create a bad or scary memory. Then they gave half the people one type of drug, and half the people another type of drug. One group that was given the drug Propranolol, had a decreased fear response to the spider pictures after 24 hours and the fear response did not return. So the colleagues suggested that the fear was all gone.
There was not much else on the idea of these memory-erasing pills, but this is what i have discovered so far. But here are some questions to think about.

By erasing someone's bad memories, does it make the person less human?
Should everyone have to have bad memories?
By erasing these memories, is t morally right?
Would you want your bad memories to be erased?

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