Induced Amnesia / Surgical Hearing Removal

How can either of these 2 things be achieved in the US, legally.

  1. Remove hearing capabilties, through surgery.

  2. Induce Amnesia, to not remember, participated experiences through life.

[ol]
[li]I can’t think of any legitimate reason to intentionally deafen someone, and I’m almost certain that to do so would be illegal in the US.[/li][li]While it’s certainly possible to cause amnesia by damaging the brain, I highly doubt that it could be targeted, and I highly doubt that it would be legal.[/li][/ol]

Are you sure it is illegal?
Unethical as hell, of course, and probably the end of the surgeon’s career (whole operating staff, actually) but what kinds of laws are on the books?
Assume the request is made were all patient consents are valid (not a minor or insane) and in order.

A cochlear implant, or any other procedure involving a mastoidectomy, can permanently destroy whatever hearing was left in that ear. However, most patients who need to have a mastoid bone removed are suffering from chrionic infection that probably already destroyed their hearing.

I think the OP is asking if it’s legally possible to intentionally remove hearing capability solely for that purpose. Obviously a cochlear implant is intended to improve hearing. A mastoidectomy is done when there’s no other choice and any hearing loss is an unwanted but unavoidable side-effect.

I’m not sure if the OP’s #2: “Induce Amnesia, to not remember, participated experiences through life.” , is even possible, let alone legal, if you are talking about targeted memories.

Henryunderborn, I am not making fun, honestly, but just curious… Is English your first language?

Isn’t that pretty much what a frontal lobotomy does? So, possible but not legal.

For targeted memories? Only if your target is extremely broad and deep.

NM; thought we were in MPSIMS.

Yes, although that would be exceptional: for the treatment of tinnitus. Here is a case report.

Tinnitus is a chronic noise in the ear. In rare cases, when it gets debilitating and affects only one ear, one can consider surgery (for instance section of the acoustic nerve). Arguably, at this point the ear “hears” mostly noise anyway, but yet this matches the OP’s question.

Same for all the surgeries to remove tumors in the inner ear or on the acoustic nerve.

Can memories be suppressed by hypnosis?
99.99999% certain that selective memories are not individually addressable by surgery.