Question of the day: the magic pill

A Pill To Forget?

29 Nov 2006 - If there were something you could take after experiencing a painful or traumatic event that would permanently weaken your memory of what had just happened, would you take it?

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Heck yeah! I'd take the pill if I witnessed a horrible accident, death, or had something traumatic happen to me. Imagine if every soldier just back from duty in Iraq could take this... If it alleviates phsyical symptoms that come from emotional/mental stress like that of PTSD, I'm all for it.

I think the ethics of medicine is to preserve life, prolong life, save life, and make life more comfortable for the living. Negative memories, I think, cause more harm than good and can cripple you so much mentally and emotionally that you start to have physical symptoms from a traumatic event. At least, that is my belief from my experience of losing my mom to a rapid mutation of CJD. She died within weeks (less than five to be exact) and the mental and emotional stress of that caused me gave me about five different physical symptpms (insomnia, acid reflux, etc) about 5-6 months after her death. If I could have taken this drug closer to the time of her death...who knows?

I don't think it would lessen the passion I have to find a cure for CJD at all, which is something good -- a lesson learned -- that came from the very negative experience. I think it would have saved me a great deal of pain. Isn't that what medicine is all about?