1. A case for memory enhancement : ethical, social, legal, and policy implications for enhancing the memory
- Author
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Muriithi, Paul Mutuanyingi, Harris, John, and Stanton, Catherine
- Subjects
174 ,adderall ,ampakines ,amphetamine ,appeal to empathy ,aricept ,Aristotle ,Baddeley ,benzodiazepines ,bioethics ,Bostrom ,brain stimulation ,brain-computer interface ,brain-machine interface ,Brunet ,Buchanan ,caffeine ,Cahil ,Caplan ,case ,coercion ,computers ,confidentiality ,consent ,consequentialist ,consistency ,consolidation ,conventional ,criminal ,damages ,d-amphetamine ,declarative memory ,deep brain stimulation ,Degrazia ,deontological ,diazepam ,discrimination ,donepezil ,Douglas ,drug mongering ,duty ,duty to remember ,Dworkin ,electroconvulsive therapy ,Elliott ,emotional distress ,emotions ,encoding ,enhancement ,enhancing technologies ,epistemic knowledge ,equality ,ethical ,evidence ,exelon ,explicit memory ,eyewitness ,eyewitness evidence ,eyewitness testimony ,Facebook ,Farah ,forget ,Fukuyama ,galantamine ,gatekeepers ,Ghetti ,ginkgo biloba ,Glover ,glucocorticoids ,glucose ,greater good ,Habermas ,Harris ,health ,human dignity ,human diversity ,human enhancement ,human nature ,human rights ,Hunter ,identity ,implicit memory ,inauthentic ,individual autonomy ,inevitable ,informed consent ,internet ,Jackson ,justice ,Kamm ,Kass ,Kolber ,laissez faire ,learning ,legal ,legal approach ,lifelogging ,living authentically ,Loftus ,long-term memory ,Lynch ,malleability of memory ,mastery ,McKibben ,medicalization ,meditation ,Mehlman ,Meilaender ,memantine ,Memory ,memory dampening ,memory enhancement ,memory manipulation ,memory processes ,memory retention ,memory retrieval ,memory storage ,methylphenidate ,midazalom ,misidentification of witnesses ,mistaken identifications ,mitigation ,mnemonics ,modafinil ,moratorium ,music ,negative emotions ,negligence ,nondeclarative memory ,non-pharmacological memory enhancement ,nutrition ,obligation ,obstruction of justice ,omega-3 ,optimum memory ,Parens ,person identity ,personality ,perverting justice ,pharmacological means ,philosophical approach ,photographic ,physical exercise ,Pitman ,policy ,poly unsaturated fatty acids ,precautionary approach ,precautionary principle ,preserving memories ,President’s Council ,primary memory ,privacy ,procedural memory ,propofol ,propranolol ,provigil ,razadyne ,recall ,recording audio ,reference memory ,regulation ,regulatory authorities ,regulatory bodies ,relational memory ,remembering ,remembering fitly ,remembering truly ,risks ,ritalin ,rites ,rituals ,rivastigmine ,safety ,Sahakian ,Sandberg ,Sandel ,Savulescu ,Schacter ,secondary memory ,short-term memory ,sleep ,slippery slope ,social ,societies' interests ,species-typical ,society interests ,species-typical functioning ,Squire ,Stanton ,Strange ,technological means ,testimony ,therapeutic ,therapy ,therapy-enhancement distinction ,traditional ,transcrannial direct current stimulation ,transcrannial magnetic stimulation ,traumatic memories ,Tulving ,ultimate prize ,unnatural ,unnatural means ,Vaiva ,video devices ,virtual social networking ,virtue ethics ,Wagenaar ,well-being ,Wells ,working memory ,wrongful ,wrongful acquittals ,wrongful convictions ,yoga ,Kahane ,Giordano ,Bennett ,Holm ,Mental Capacity Act - Abstract
The desire to enhance and make ourselves better is not a new one and it has continued to intrigue throughout the ages. Individuals have continued to seek ways to improve and enhance their well-being for example through nutrition, physical exercise, education and so on. Crucial to this improvement of their well-being is improving their ability to remember. Hence, people interested in improving their well-being, are often interested in memory as well. The rationale being that memory is crucial to our well-being. The desire to improve one’s memory then is almost certainly as old as the desire to improve one’s well-being. Traditionally, people have used different means in an attempt to enhance their memories: for example in learning through storytelling, studying, and apprenticeship. In remembering through practices like mnemonics, repetition, singing, and drumming. In retaining, storing and consolidating memories through nutrition and stimulants like coffee to help keep awake; and by external aids like notepads and computers. In forgetting through rituals and rites. Recent scientific advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, molecular biology, neuroscience, and information technologies, present a wide variety of technologies to enhance many different aspects of human functioning. Thus, some commentators have identified human enhancement as central and one of the most fascinating subject in bioethics in the last two decades. Within, this period, most of the commentators have addressed the Ethical, Social, Legal and Policy (ESLP) issues in human enhancements as a whole as opposed to specific enhancements. However, this is problematic and recently various commentators have found this to be deficient and called for a contextualized case-by-case analysis to human enhancements for example genetic enhancement, moral enhancement, and in my case memory enhancement (ME). The rationale being that the reasons for accepting/rejecting a particular enhancement vary depending on the enhancement itself. Given this enormous variation, moral and legal generalizations about all enhancement processes and technologies are unwise and they should instead be evaluated individually. Taking this as a point of departure, this research will focus specifically on making a case for ME and in doing so assessing the ESLP implications arising from ME. My analysis will draw on the already existing literature for and against enhancement, especially in part two of this thesis; but it will be novel in providing a much more in-depth analysis of ME. From this perspective, I will contribute to the ME debate through two reviews that address the question how we enhance the memory, and through four original papers discussed in part three of this thesis, where I examine and evaluate critically specific ESLP issues that arise with the use of ME. In the conclusion, I will amalgamate all my contribution to the ME debate and suggest the future direction for the ME debate.
- Published
- 2014