Is removing the memory of pain the same as preventing it? If you had the ability to alter the memory of someone you had hurt so they didn't remember you doing it, would you?

After administering ether to John Prescott, Nora and Daniel surmise that the drug, rather than entirely preventing his pain, made it so the pain was "shut out from memory." Is removing the memory of pain the same as preventing it? If you had the ability to alter the memory of someone you had hurt so they didn't remember you doing it, would you?

Well this is a loaded question 😂 and definitely involves some ethical issues! If autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, veracity, and confidentiality are adhered to then altering memory for medical purpose would be justified with obvious consent. If pain is removed by preventing the memory of it and the patient understands what will be done and agrees to it than yes it would be ok. To erase someone’s memory to spare yourself of guilt would not be ethical!
Is removing memory of pain the same as preventing it? No, but the result are the same.

No I would not. If I have done wrong and hurt someone by words or actions I would ask for their forgiveness. I would learn from my mistake.

They are two distinct things. If you are removing a memory of pain it means the pain occurred. If you prevent pain, it never occurs to begin with.

No, removing it is not the same as preventing it. A doctor must cause pain, for example, during surgery, he can't prevent it if he/she is cutting into someone, but having the patient not remember it relieves the doctor of that issue. I could never alter someones memory if I had caused them pain. The best thing to do is talk and give an apology.

Once more Dianac and I are in agreement

how would you know if you were in pain if you can't remember it? I rather chose a way to prevent pain by knocking you out or using anesthesia to numb, not have you go through it all and then give you a pill/injection to "conveniently forget" what they went through. Having said that, there was a time when these we not available, and I am not sure what I would have chosen for myself

Sure! I think sometimes we hurt people without meaning to and if we had the chance to go back and do it again, we would act differently, so I think if I could erase the memory of doing something I wish I had never done to begin with, I definitely would.

I choose to prevent pain and if I have even if I did not realize how sensitive someone may have been I recognize it immediately and make amends.