Drugs to erase Memory imprints in Humans?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6832339.ece

This is about erasing sections of Human memory! Those moments which you want to forget, those past moments that traumatize you, they will be more than just things of the past. They will be erased!

This is an interesting idea actually and movies have been based on this (like 'paycheck' and 'Eternal sunshine of the Spotless mind'). While making this technology possible is just great, I believe it has more negative factors associated with it than the positive factors.

I agree, this helps a great deal for people who want to forget what happened when they suffered a great deal, as in cases of World war concentration camps, rapes and cases where you have lost a loved one and you just cannot deal with it.

Is forgetting your lost one really the best way of tribute? What about the side effects?

In other cases too, after you have forgotten stuff, it is human curiosity to go back and find what happened. In this case, you will not remember what happened or the seriousness or intensity of it. You'll go back to the newspapers or anything and try to find out what happened. Also, This will be a gross Human failure, if commercialized.

I can only think of two cases where this will really be useful.

1. Secret service:

People will essentially be forced to forget what happened during their tenure in CIA or RAW. This will mean they do not know any more secrets. They will even think they might have accomplished something great even if they hadn't :)

2. Saving Criminals from death:

Death penalty can be avoided by just erasing out a person's memory and allowing him to live. Many criminals are daring and brilliant. They can even be trained for the army / intelligence for all I know.

Also, other serious crimes can be handled in a similar manner. Funny I used this technique in an old story of mine at http://letmekillyou.blogspot.com/2008/07/fictional-reality.html

If commercialized, there is no way this technology can be restricted from falling into the wrong hands, like Terrorist organizations, who can brainwash people more literally to use them. Research folks should be more careful with this.

Have you ever looked back on a old bad memory and laughed? You'd want to forget a person now, but a few years down the lane, you'd be happy you didn't forget him.

Want to close out with, "Memories remain the same, but the way we look at them changes from time to time."