Practical problems in medical ethics: III. Taking the sting out of memory

We are now at the end of this week’s special series considering three case studies in medical ethics as proposed recently by my colleague at City College, Jeff Blustein. We started out by examining a case of unexpected finding of non-paternity, continuing with an instance of wanting a baby to be deaf by design. For this last installment we are going to examine a situation that involves taking the sting out of painful memories.

As usual, before we proceed, let me remind you of the six criteria that my colleague suggested in order to arrive at a good philosophical evaluation of the case studies:

1. Formulate the problem. This is not always as easy as it sounds, as there may be more than one way to formulate the problem itself, before we even begin to consider possible answers.

2. Consider the relevant information. If there are critical pieces of information that are missing, articulate why they are relevant to the ethical analysis, and what follows from the fact that they are currently missing.

3. Refer to the ethical principles involved. An ethical dilemma arises when some values dictate incompatible courses of action, and it is not immediately obvious which should take priority.