"Mr. Spock, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that most Vulcans possess the ability to delete specific memories from a subject's mind via a telepathic mind touch?"
"As far as I can deduce, there was some traumatic event about two hundred standard years ago which deleted certain memories, but since then my memory and other faculties have been flawless."
After reaching such... enlightenment, I was reluctant to delete my impulses and ideas, my thoughts and memories.
Have you heard the deal though, that your brain deletes memories of intense pain, especially during childbirth (apparently so we keep pumping out babies)?
In light of the modern evidence for long-term memory storage in long-lasting brain structures, it is not surprising that "total cessation of the electrical activity of the brain does not generally delete memories, although it may selectively affect the most recently stored ones" (A. J. Dunn).
He also remembers that he was the doctor who developed a process to chemically delete and restore memories.