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Thread: Criminal with Memory Loss

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    Bento's Avatar
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    Default Criminal with Memory Loss

    Should a criminal who has lost his memories nevertheless be convicted?

    The question is deliberately vague. Define your own case studies.

    What interests me most is whether you believe that a person who has lost their memories is still the same person who committed the crime.

    Is a self made up out of memories?

    How far-reaching the loss of memory is, the cause and whether it is temporary or forever, I leave up to you.
    Last edited by Bento; 08-04-2019 at 11:59 PM. Reason: deleted link to article

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    Memory of an action doesn't negate damages inflicted.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kim Bell View Post
    Memory of an action doesn't negate damages inflicted.
    Pretty much this. If someone was proven to murder someone with irrefutable evidence, then had his or her memory wiped, it doesn't undo the damage.
    “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” Randy Pausch

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    They should be given civil charges if they don't remember and have genuine remorse, otherwise keep the criminal charges. Even if someone used that to get out of a life's sentence, that implies remorse itself since an amnesic criminal is probably not going to be very competent and if someone just brainwashed themselves and tried to kill again, they would feel like they have lost their sanity (though I'm writing this story now since I've said that.)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bento View Post
    Should a criminal who has lost his memories nevertheless be convicted?

    The question is deliberately vague. Define your own case studies.

    What interests me most is whether you believe that a person who has lost their memories is still the same person who committed the crime.

    Is a self made up out of memories?

    How far-reaching the loss of memory is, the cause and whether it is temporary or forever, I leave up to you.

    I don't know, but another interesting case is whether a criminal psychopath who has an "empathy chip" implanted into his brain can be a different person.

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    Depends on what he did exactly, and all the various details. Criminal doesn't always equal bad person and 'the law' doesn't always mean the highest purest good. I tend to like bad boys, because they ironically have treated me way better than a 'good' person ever did. /shrug

    I don't know, but another interesting case is whether a criminal psychopath who has an "empathy chip" implanted into his brain can be a different person.


    I respectfully think you have it backwards. The problem with many criminals is that they actually have too much empathy. Likewise many if not most people in authority are stereotypically very heartless and cruel, and hide behind the protections the system gives them because they enjoy being mean to people.

    When you have so much empathy and a big heart, it actually often causes people to 'snap' and do fucked up things- and make a scapegoat for everybody to hate and feel superior to. Nah it's no good excuse, and they should still be held accountable for their actions- but it's a thing. Empathy is interesting and complex. It doesn't always make somebody a goody goody law abiding mary sue citizen, it more often makes somebody a dangerous rebel really....but YMMV.

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    That's a good question, if one can make sure that s/he does not repeat a similar crime in spite of the memory loss.

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    As far as I'm concerned, the purpose of punishing criminals is not to get back at them for their wrongdoing. It's to deter other people from committing crimes. From that standpoint, a case could be made for punishing the criminal regardless of whether they can remember their deed. On the other hand, it would, of course, be deeply inhumane to do so--if a person can't remember doing something, then in their own universe they really didn't do it--and so, as a nice person, my final answer would have to be no.

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