Looks confused at HSF's comment -
Whoa Chris were you taking a dig at me,or should I apologize right now for even thinking that?
Now, which bit could I have been aiming specifically at him?
Isn't remembering, dealing with and learning from the bad things in the past a vital survival ability?
Taking the other side of the argument, isn't pain an essential indication of a malfunction? But you don't see even many religious figures nowadays who come out against anasthetics, and I think most of them tolerate morphine for those who are dying in great pain (and hold a distinctly non-christian hope that those who don't die of something lingering and agonising)
What I was holding out for is sanctity of self. My father was an extremely analytic, precise person. He died of a brain tumor, and for the last eight months was being gradually erased (demolished) losing little by little his past, himself.
I suspect that if I should ever follow the suicide option, it would be that, rather than physical pain, that would push me.
Even if I could choose each memory to be eliminated personally, with someone I trust to advise and help, I don't think I'd wipe one; and presumably we're talking firstly about fourteen year old rape victims here, who need the treatment because they can't think straight, but are badly adapted for choosing for the same reason.
And that's before criminal incompetents get hold of the stuff (probably stolen from hospitals, but maybe synthesised diectly; the synthetic drugs scene gives them access to a range of qualified chemists) and use it to fog up evidence of kidnappings, thefts, extortion...
And not all governments are above reprogramming their citizens.
