<h3><font face="Garamond"><a name="world-without-regret"></a>New
Science Raises the Specter of a
World Without
Regret</font></h3>
<h1 align="center"><font face="Garamond"><a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/news/"><img src="voice_logo.gif" title="" alt="VOICE logo" style="border: 0px solid ; width: 174px; height: 59px;"></a></font></h1>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><font face="Garamond">The
Guilt-Free
Soldier by <a href="http://www.kurzweilai.net/erik-baard">Erik
Baard</a></font></h3>
<font face="Garamond">January 22 - 28,
2003 Copyright
© 2003 <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/news/" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Village Voice
Media</a>,
Inc.,
36 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_Voice" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Village
Voice and
Voice</a> are
registered
trademarks. All rights reserved. </font>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond">A
soldier faces a
drab cluster of buildings
off a
broken highway, where the enemy is encamped among civilians. Local
farmers and their families are routinely forced to fill the basements
and shacks, acting as human shields for weapons that threaten the lives
of other civilians, the soldier's comrades, and his cause in this messy
21st-century war. <br>
There will be no surgical strikes tonight.
The
artillery this soldier can unleash with a single command to his mobile
computer will bring flames and screaming, deafening blasts and
unforgettably
acrid air. The ground around him will be littered with the broken
bodies
of women and children, and he'll have to walk right through. Every
value
he learned as a boy tells him to back down, to return to base and find
another way of routing the enemy. <br>
Or, he reasons, he could complete the task
and
rush back to </font><font color="#cc0022" face="Garamond"><span style="font-weight: bold;">start
popping
pills</span> </font><font face="Garamond">that
can, over the course of two weeks, </font><font style="font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">immunize
him
against a lifetime of crushing remorse</font><font face="Garamond">. He
draws
one last
clean
breath and fires. <br>
Pills like those won't be available to the
troops
heading off for possible war with Iraq, but </font><font color="#cc0022" face="Garamond"><span style="font-weight: bold;">the
prospect of a soul absolved by meds remains very real. Feelings of
guilt
and regret travel neural pathways in a manner that mimics the tracings
of ingrained fear, so a PROPHILACTIC against one could guard against
the
other</span>.</font><font face="Garamond">
Several current lines of
research,
some
federally
funded,
show strong promise for this. <br>
At the <a href="http://www.berkeley.edu/" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">University of
California</a>
at Irvine,
experiments
in rats indicate that the brain's hormonal </font><font color="#cc0047" face="Garamond">reactions
to fear can be inhibited, softening the formation of memories and the
emotions
they evoke</font><font face="Garamond">. <br>
At <a href="http://www.nyu.edu/" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">New York
University</a>,
researchers are
mastering
the means of short-circuiting the very wiring of primal fear. At <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Columbia
University</a> one Nobel laureate's lab has discovered the gene
behind
a
fear-inhibiting
protein, uncovering a vision of <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">fight
or flight</span> at the molecular
level.
In Puerto Rico, at the <a href="http://www.psm.edu" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Ponce School
of Medicine</a>,
scientists are
discovering </font><font color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">ways
to help the brain unlearn fear and inhibitions by stimulating it with
magnets</font><font face="Garamond">.
And at <a href="http://www.harvard.edu/"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Harvard
University</span></a>,
survivors of car accidents are already
swallowing
propranolol pills, in the first human trials of that common cardiac
drug
as a means to </font><font style="font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">nip
the
effects of trauma in
the
bud</font><font face="Garamond">. <br>
</font> </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond">The web of </font><font color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">your
worst
nightmares, your hauntings and panics and SHAME, radiates</font><font face="Garamond">
from
a dense knot of neurons called the amygdala. With each new frightening
or humiliating experience, or even the reliving of an old one, this
fear
center triggers a release of hormones that sear horrifying impressions
into your brain. That which is unbearable becomes unforgettable too.
Unless,
it seems, you act quickly enough to block traumatic memories from
taking
a stranglehold. <br>
Some observers say that in
the name of human decency there are some things people should have
to
live with.<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">They
object to the
idea of medicating away one's
conscience</span>. <br>
</font> </div>
<font style="font-family: mistral;" size="+2">It's
the
morning-after
pill for just about anything that produces REGRET, REMORSE, pain, or
GUILT </font><font face="Garamond">says <a href="https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcbe/about/kass.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Dr.
Leon Kass</a>,
chairman of the <a href="http://www.bioethics.gov/"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">President's
Council on
Bioethics</span></a>, who emphasizes that
he's
speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the council.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=832&hilite=barry+romo"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Barry Romo</span></a>,
a national
coordinator for <a href="http://www.vvaw.org/" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Vietnam
Veterans Against the War</a>, is even more blunt. </font>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: mistral; text-align: justify;"><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">That's
the <font color="#cc0022">DEVIL
PILL</font></font><font face="Garamond"> <span style="font-style: italic;">he
says.</span> </font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">That's
the monster
pill, the ANTI-MORALITY pill. That's the pill that can make men and
women
do anything and think they can get away with it. Even if it doesn't
work,
what's scary is that a young soldier could believe it will.
Are
we ready
for the
infamous Nuremberg plea</font><font face="Garamond"> <br style="font-style: italic;">
</font> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond"><span style="font-family: mistral;">—</span></font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">
I was just
following
order<br>
—</font><font face="Garamond"><span style="font-family: mistral;">
</span></font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">to
be made
easier
with pharmaceuticals?</font><font style="font-family: mistral; font-style: italic;" face="Garamond" size="+2"> </font><font face="Garamond"><br style="font-family: mistral;">
</font> <font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">Though
the research
so far has been
limited
to animals and the most preliminary of human trials, the question is
worth
debating now. </font><font face="Garamond"><br>
<br>
</font> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">If
you have
the pill, it certainly
increases
the temptation for the soldier to lower the standard for taking lethal
action, if he thinks he'll be numbed to the personal risk of
consequences. <font color="#cc0022">We
don't want soldiers saying willy-nilly, 'Screw it. I can take my
pill
and even if doing this is not really warranted, I'll be OK'</font></font><font face="Garamond"><span style="font-family: garamond;">
says psychiatrist <a href="http://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-edmund-howe-2qhd7" style="font-weight: bold;">Edmund G. Howe</a>,
director of the <a href="http://www.usuhs.mil/psy/" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Program on
Medical
Ethics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences</a>.</span>
</font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">If
soldiers are going to have that lower threshold, we might have to build
in even stronger safeguards than we have right now against, say,
blowing
away human shields. We'll need a higher standard of proof [that an
action
is justified].</font><font face="Garamond"> <br>
</font> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond"><span style="font-family: garamond;">The
scientists behind this advance </span></font><font style="font-family: garamond; font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">into
the shadows of memory and fear don't dream of creating morally
anesthetized
grunts</font><font face="Garamond"><span style="font-family: garamond;">.
They're trying to
fend off </span><span style="font-family: garamond;"><a href="mal.htm" style="font-style: italic;">post-traumatic
stress disorder,
or
PTSD</a></span><span style="font-family: garamond;">,
so that</span></font><font style="font-family: garamond;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond"> </font><font style="font-family: garamond; font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">women
who've been raped</font><font face="Garamond"><span style="font-family: garamond;">
can leave
their
houses
without
feeling like targets. So that survivors of terrorist attacks can
function,
raise families, and move forward. And yes, so that those </span></font><font style="font-family: garamond; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">young
soldiers aren't left shattered for decades by what they've seen and
done
in service</font><font face="Garamond"><span style="font-family: garamond;">. </span><br style="font-family: garamond;">
<span style="font-family: garamond;">Combat
and
psychoactive chemicals have
always
been inseparable, whether the agent was alcohol or a space-age pill. A
half-century
after Japan hopped its soldiers up on </span><b><font style="font-family: garamond;" color="#cc0022"><a href="/adhd.htm">methylamphetamines</a></font></b><span style="font-family: garamond;">
during </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: garamond;">World
War
II</span><span style="font-family: garamond;">, the
U.S. has pilots
currently in the dock for
mistakenly
bombing Canadian troops while using speed to stay awake. When </span><a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2000/kandel-autobio.html" style="font-weight: bold; font-family: garamond;">Eric
Kandel,
the Nobel laureate in medicine</a><span style="font-family: garamond;">
who works out of Columbia, was
asked
if
his </span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC193636/" style="font-weight: bold; font-family: garamond;">genetic
exploration
of fear</a><span style="font-family: garamond;">
was funded
by the </span><a href="http://www.darpa.mil/default.aspx" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: garamond;">Pentagon's
Defense
Advanced
Research Projects Agency</a><span style="font-family: garamond;">, he
quipped,</span> <br>
</font> </p>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">No,
but
you're welcome to call
them
and tell them about me.</font><font face="Garamond"> <br>
</font> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond">Imagine
a world where </font><font style="font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">the
same pill soothed victims and perpetrators alike</font><font face="Garamond">.<br>
</font> </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> <font face="Garamond"><a href="http://www.transcendentalists.com/1thorea.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Henry
David Thoreau</a> advised, </font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">Make
the most
of your regrets; <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">never
smother
your sorrow</span>... To regret deeply is to
live afresh.</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
Without remorse, there
would have been
no <a href="http://www.joyfulheart.com/misc/newton.htm" style="font-weight: bold;">John
Newton</a>, a slave trader who found religion during a harrowing
storm
at
sea
and later became an abolitionist; he's best known for penning <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmhqszfmLu8" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Amazing
Grace</a>. <br>
</font> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond">For
doctors, the
drugs would present a
tricky
dilemma. Most people exposed to traumatic situations don't end up with <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">PTSD</span>,
but there are few means of knowing on the spot who might need treatment
much further down the line. Researchers say that for the medicines to
be
effective, patients would need to take them soon after the upsetting
event. </font><font style="font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">The
temptation for physicians might be to err on the side of caution, at
the
cost of curbing normal emotional responses</font><font face="Garamond">.
Victims might be
eager to avoid lasting pain, wrongdoers the full sting of
self-examination. <br>
</font> </p>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">The
impulse
is to help people to not
fall
apart.
You don't want to condemn that,</font><font style="font-family: garamond;" face="Garamond"> says <a href="http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2009-05/Interview.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Kass</a>.</font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2"> <font color="#cc0022">B</font><font color="#cc0022">ut
that you would treat these things with equanimity, the horrible things
of the world</font></font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">,
so that they don't disturb you ... you'd cease to be a
human being., </font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond">The
very idea of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">PTSD</span>
has been
attacked as
a
social construction, a vague catchall that provides </font><font style="font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">EXCULPATION</font><font face="Garamond">
for the misdeeds of war. But </font><font style="font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">researchers
are
trying
to prevent the onset of a disease, not change the social circumstances
that bring it about</font><font face="Garamond">. <a href="http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=2140" style="font-weight: bold;">James L. McGaugh</a>, a
neurobiologist at <a href="http://www.uci.edu/" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">U.C.
Irvine</a> whose study of stress hormones and memory
consolidation in
rats
is one of the cornerstones of the effort, acknowledges the ambiguities
but comes out swinging in defense of his work. <br>
</font> </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">Is
it immoral
to weaken
the memory of horrendous acts a person has committed? Well, I suppose
one
might make that case. Some of your strongest memories are of
embarrassments
and of the guilty things you did. It doesn't surprise me at all that
people
would wake up screaming, thinking of the young children they killed in
Vietnam,</font><font face="Garamond"> McGaugh says. </font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">But
is
treating that worse than saying,
'Don't
worry if your leg is shot off, we've got penicillin and surgery to
prevent
you from dying of infection'? Why is it any worse to give them a drug
that
prevents them from having PSTD for the rest of their lives? The moral
dilemma
is sending people to war in the first place.</font><font face="Garamond">
<br>
</font> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond">Nevertheless,
fellow
fear
researcher <a href="http://biology.uprrp.edu/people/view_employee.php?id=307" style="font-weight: bold;">Dr.
Gregory
Quirk</a> of the <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Ponce
School of Medicine</span>, in Puerto Rico, is troubled by
how
his work might be used if it progressed from studies of rats to
therapies
for humans. He argues that fear isn't created and degraded in
the
amygdala alone, but is also unlearned in the prefrontal cortex, which
in <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">PTSD</span>
patients is only weakly active. Quirk thinks a physician could
stimulate
those areas with magnets while patients view the images they fear, and
could thus restore balance to the mind.<br>
</font> </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond"> </font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">With
that
same method,</font><font face="Garamond"> he says, </font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">firemen
could
stave
off episodes of life-threatening panic.</font><font face="Garamond"> </font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">Certainly
the military might be interested in something like that,</font><font face="Garamond">
he
says. </font><font style="font-family: mistral;" face="Garamond" size="+2">If
this would be used to go against fear that's important for survival or
morality, I would have a problem with that.</font><font face="Garamond">
<br>
</font> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Garamond">There
are reasons to
believe our
military
would
covet mastery of Quirk's technique in humans.<br>
</font> <font style="font-weight: bold;" color="#cc0022" face="Garamond">People
at war dehumanize their enemies to make killing more palatable</font><font face="Garamond">.
Now, in
the war on terror, our modern cultural taboos against torture are
fraying. <br>
Put yourself in the room then. The
commission
of heinous acts, even deliberate torture, can also visit lifelong
torment on
perpetrators