Ethics of Memory – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The three ethical issues that I will discuss for this assignment are 1) Clementine and Joel have their memories of each other and their relationship erased 2) The employee uses memories, scenarios, and souvenirs from Joel and Clementine’s relationship in order to seduce Clementine 3) The affair that takes place with the firm’s secretary (Mary) and Dr. that gets erased from Mary’s memory. I will be discussing the ethical issues using concepts of utilitarianism, libertarianism, and Kantianism. Also since I assure you’ve seen the movie, I will not waste either of our time summarizing and assume that you’ll know what I’m talking about. The first ethical issue that arises in the film is when Clementine and then Joel have their memories of each other erased from their minds after a devastating breakup. After watching the movie the question that comes to mind is, is this right? If a person has memories that are depressing them, then is it OK to have these memories simply erases from their mind? A Utilitarian and the greatest happiness principle would argue that yes the memories of their relationship could be removed and it wouldn’t be unethical because the memories are doing them harm, and it would maximize both of their happiness to erase the reminiscences of the relationship all together (Sandel Ch. 2). A Libertarian would argue that it isn’t unethical because it is their bodies and therefor no matter what it is their choice and their choice alone (Sandel Ch. 3). The ethical issue with this is that people might think irrationally when they’re suffering, but could end up regret making this decision like we see while Joel is asleep he is trying to hide Clementine in other parts of his mind so that he doesn’t lose the memories. It’s unethical to take advantage of someone who is suffering and not thinking clearly. Applying Immanuel Kant’s concepts to this situation, the question would be if the moral worth of an action depends on the motive, and if they’re doing this for the right reason (Sandel Ch. 5). Kant’s view on the ethics of memory removal would be that hurting and altering oneself in certain ways is morally problematic (Grau pg 6). The movie is proposing with different cues throughout the film that the fact that the erased each other’s memories is wrong, and Kant’s moral theory helps make this proposal clear (Sandel ch. 5).
The second ethical issue that takes place is when Patrick, the employee at Lacuna INC, establishes a crush on Clementine while doing her procedure and uses the memories Joel has to act as Joel and tries to make her fall for him. When he takes souvenirs of Clementine and Joel’s relationship and uses these to try and seduce Clementine it is unethical to the Utilitarian because only he benefits from this. Sandel teaches us that the Bentham, the father of Utilitarianism, believes that “the right thing to do is whatever will maximize utility” (Sandel pg. 34). The suffering of Clementine from his lies, and suffering Joel would have from this outweigh Patrick’s happiness. It would also be unethical to the Libertarian because Patrick is stealing Joel’s property. In the most general sense, Libertarianism is a philosophy that supports the rights of individuals to liberty and protection of their individual rights being the primary concern
(Sandel ch. 3). These memories and memorabilia do not belong to Patrick and therefor unethical to the libertarians because he is using something that isn’t his to benefit himself. I also believe that the Kantians would deem his
