Spotless Mind

I was browsing the magazines at the bookstore a few days ago and I found an interesting article: It appears that it is now possible (sort of) to erase bad memories and traumatic events from the mind.

What happens is (if I understand this correctly), a pill can now adjust the levels of stress hormones that the brain secretes when it remembers a traumatic event. This lessens the physiological effect on the patient's body. Then a "newly-edited memory" is now stored in the brain. So when the patient remembers this same event, it is now different. The traumatic details will be lessened.

While all of there is all good in a glance, what about the other implications? What if somewhere along the way, the patient needed to remember the event as it exactly happened for legal purposes (say, the patient is a witness in a court proceeding)? Or what if the patient needed to remember the events very vividly for other purposes?

But whattabout the patient's sake? Is it humane to let this person live his/her life day after day very miserable and fear-laden? Is it humane to let this person being unable to live his/her life the way any normal human being could?

What do you think?