A while back, I was wondering how much freedom future society will give to individuals who choose to perform neurosurgery on themselves (well, they wouldn’t literally perform it on themselves; they would have to pay a doctor to do it.) The goal of these prophesied surgeries would be to remove parts of the brain that cause negative emotions like fear, worry and anger.

Another thought just occurred to me. What about pets? The moral conundrum of making a human not feel fear or anger is much greater than the decision as to whether you can “change” your dog’s personality. Let’s say you adopt a dog and think he’s too aggressive. Should people be allowed to take Fido in to the vet surgeon and remove part of his amygdala? Or, let’s say you have a dog who is so hyper aggressive that he’s bitten several people and the choice is between putting him to sleep or “lobotomizing” him: which is the better option? What about pet Prozac? Some of this would clearly be for the pet’s benefit — who wouldn’t want to be happier? — but it’s a bizarre moral gray area.