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Wednesday August 29, 2007
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Rice-sized RFID chip implants that store vital medical records are nothing exceptionally new; in the summer of 2006, reports about the VeriMed system, which encodes a person's medical records in a 16-digit code, were everywhere. The chip is implanted into the arm so that it can be scanned and easily obtained in a medical emergency.
There was some new attention to the technology this week: Good Morning America broadcast this segment, which reports on the technology being used to keep track of Alzheimer's patients if they should wander and become disoriented.
Though I don't know if I agree with Lance Ulanoff that the VeriChip technology is really necessary to track our teenage children (where's the trust? or the cell phone, for that matter?), I can see the advantage of using the technology to ensure the safety of our parents and grandparents. Fundamentally, it's the logical next step to the Alzheimer's Association's Safe Return Bracelets, which offer 24-hour assistance when a patient with Alzheimer's or dementia wanders. But is it going a tad too far?
There are serious issues of privacy cropping up in my head--and the heads of privacy advocacy groups, as well--concerning what could be easily construed as LoJack for people. Things like this make me think we're inching ever closer to a 1984/Brave New World-esque big brother is watching sort of existence, in which we're all implanted with microchips at birth and persistently tracked in our every movement. I liked Gattaca, just not that much.
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August 29, 2007 5:56 PM
I remember reading about a man who implanted an RFID chip in his wife whom he suspected of infidelity. He installed a reader in the door frame of his house and also on the door frame of his best friend. He was able to track when his wife entered and exited his friend's house and knew she was cheating on him.
While this use is abhorrent, the same idea can be used in a nursing home to make sure that a patient doesn't wander off when no one is looking. There have been many incidents of patients waking up in the middle of the night when the nursing staff was minimal and wandering outside. Having a reader by the doorway of nursing homes similar to those in department stores to prevent shoplifting would be of enormous benefit. It doesn't need to be a requirement, but it can be an added safety feature which would provide peace of mind to the families of those stricken with alzheimers.
August 30, 2007 9:36 AM
Yes, everything from Logan's Run to Gattaca is racing through my head, butI also have the image of my mother--naked, and tangled in my shrubs in front of my house.
And I was grateful that she had wandered out the front yard and not the back where there was a fifteen foot embankment overlooking a river.
I can handle a bracelet with a microchip.
Like all technology from the invention of the telephone to the explosion of the internet--tracking devices can be exploited, but are now inevitable and I believe necessary.
~Carol O'Dell
Author of MOTHERING MOTHER: A Daughter's Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir
Avaiable on Amazon and in most bookstores.
August 30, 2007 1:28 PM
I think we should implant them in criminals of all types sex offenders,bank robbers etc and when there is a criminal activity push the button to find where the bad guys are in the area .
August 30, 2007 9:08 PM
I agree with Emile- for certain offenders an implant would be a good, but seems it would be very easy to remove.
Kevin Smith
August 31, 2007 2:21 PM
Papers! Papers Please!
At least let you son get old enough to decide for himself if he wants the government to be able to track him.
For myself, I trust "Government" about as far as I can Throw it.
September 2, 2007 12:53 PM
RFID implants have practical uses for the medically needy. If a person is having a heart attack, the emt personal would have instant access to the basic information which could save lives. Go for it!
For the convicted felons, if a former bank robber enters a bank and the bank registers him, he knows he can't rob the bank and get away with it. So he doesn't rob banks anymore.
The question comes down to who and why do we implant? Who is being protected? Implanting a RFID won't go over in our society without a sound and valid reason. And these reasons do exist now to protect patients and to protect society from dangerous people. It's only a question of who and why.