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Brain wiping!

Arran Cameron
Following the recent fuss surrounding whether Shamima Begum should return to the UK unhindered or have her British citizenship revoked, I was involved in a discussion about whether people with extremist views should have their brain electrically wiped as an alternative to incarceration or execution (by drones, snipers etc.).


Passing an electric current through a brain is capable of completely erasing all knowledge that the person has in a similar way to low level formatting a hard drive.


Would members of the IET approve of this procedure for criminals with extremist views as an alternative to being jailed for life? It will save the taxpayer large sums of money and the individual could potentially become a nice person in the future.
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    This is a dangerous ethical problem. We may have the capability to wipe memories (and I am not sure that we really do), but can this be done selectively? If it is selective, who makes the decision on which memories to wipe and how is it decided. More likely it is completely uncontrolled and all memories are wiped, in which case you have effectively retained the body but removed everything that makes them that person. Is this any different from execution? It would certainly not save money as there would need to be an intensive education program to replace all the memories and knowledge lost. It may be cheaper to implement a "re-education scheme", but would something like brain-washing be acceptable?

    I suspect that this is a question that is best discussed in a forum where socio-political ethics are formulated rather than at the IET.

    Alasdair
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    This is a dangerous ethical problem. We may have the capability to wipe memories (and I am not sure that we really do), but can this be done selectively? If it is selective, who makes the decision on which memories to wipe and how is it decided. More likely it is completely uncontrolled and all memories are wiped, in which case you have effectively retained the body but removed everything that makes them that person. Is this any different from execution? It would certainly not save money as there would need to be an intensive education program to replace all the memories and knowledge lost. It may be cheaper to implement a "re-education scheme", but would something like brain-washing be acceptable?

    I suspect that this is a question that is best discussed in a forum where socio-political ethics are formulated rather than at the IET.

    Alasdair
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