The Neuroethics of Memory
From Total Recall to Oblivion

The Neuroethics of Memory is a thematically integrated analysis and discussion of neuroethical questions about memory capacity and content, as well as interventions to alter it. These include: how does memory function enable agency, and how does memory dysfunction disable it? To what extent is identity based on our capacity to accurately recall the past? Could a person who becomes aware during surgery be harmed if they have no memory of the experience? How do we weigh the benefits and risks of brain implants designed to enhance, weaken or erase memory? Can a person be responsible for an action if they do not recall it? Would a victim of an assault have an obligation to retain a memory of this act, or the right to erase it? This book uses a framework informed by neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy combined with actual and hypothetical cases to examine these and related questions.

Introduction; 1. Memory systems and memory stages; 2. Agency, identity and dementia; 3. Anesthesia, amnesia and recall; 4. Disorders of memory content and interventions; 5. Disorders of memory capacity and interventions; 6. Legal issues involving memory; Epilogue. The future of memory.

Walter Glannon is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary, Canada. He has served as a clinical ethicist at three different hospitals and has held academic appointments at McGill University and the University of British Columbia. He is also the author or editor of ten books, including Free Will and the Brain: Neuroscientific, Philosophical, and Legal Perspectives (Cambridge, 2015).