It is understandable that this woman was afraid of losing her consciousness because it is really the only thing we have as humans. Our thoughts are what make us exist. But our thoughts and memories can also be cruel things. Although this woman didn't want to be put under, she doesn't know that she ever was and so there is no harm done. But as doctors they should have respected her wishes. As humane people, they also knew what was best for her and they acted on that instead.
Our memories are such malleable things. It brings to mind the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" which is one of my favorites. The idea of shaping ourselves by changing our memories is a very romantic concept. Our memories form who we are but our inability to forget is sometimes haunting. Obsessions and the pain of loss or trauma are all things we would be better off without. If I were that woman, I would be thankful to those doctors. Sometimes I wish the idea of intentional memory erasure was a more realistic one outside of erasing ten minutes from your mind as the drug Propofol does. In terms of mental health simply erasing painful or troubling things would be much easier than counselling to overcome them. Some things are simply beyond our ability to cope. This also brings the ethics of lobotomies into play. Who is to judge what severity of mental issues should call for unauthorized fiddling with a person's brain? What is moral to one person is immoral to another. Also, legal issues come into play. I believe that it must be incredibly difficult to form a barrier between ethical decisions as a doctor and ethical decisions as a humane person. Especially for people in the field of psychology.
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