CLINICAL ASSESSMENT OF MALINGERING AND DECEPTION 23, 41 (Richard Rogers ed., 2d ed. 1997). While it is difficult to estimate how often malingering occurs, neuropsychologists who make malingering evaluations report finding probable malingering in about 34% of chronic pain cases in which they are asked to make determinations. Wiley Mittenberg et al., Base Rates of Malingering and Symptom Exaggeration, 24 J. CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY 1094, 1096 (2002) (based on adjusted data). Another study examined a group of patients receiving disability benefits for chronic pain who were referred for psychological testing because their doctors believed that their pain was largely psychological in origin. Evidence of malingering was found in over 40% of these patients. Roger 0. Gervais et al., Effects of Coaching on Symptom Validity Testing in Chronic Pain Patients Presenting for Disability Assessments, 2 J. FORENSIC NEUROPSYCHOLOGY 13-14 (2001).
stating that in addition to promoting voluntary organ donation, "physicians should support innovative approaches to encourage organ donation" by supporting "and, if appropriate, participati[ng] in the conduct of ethically designed research studies of financial incentives"). The American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the United Network for Organ Sharing have also endorsed such studies.
Emerging technologies raise the possibility that we may be able to treat trauma victims by pharmaceutically dampening factual or emotional aspects of their memories. Such technologies raise a panoply of legal and ethical issues. While many of these issues remain off in the distance, some have already arisen. In this brief commentary, I discuss a real-life case of memory erasure. The case reveals why the contours of our freedom of memory-our limited bundle of rights to control our memories and be free of outside control-already merit some attention.
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