Needed: A No-Forced-Chipping Law

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, September 15, 2017 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Since microchips are here to stay, here’s a little history.  In 1997 four inventors got a patent for a “personal tracking and recovery system” that was, actually, an implantable microchip that functioned for years without maintenance.  In 1998 Professor Kevin Warwick became the first human to have an under-skin microchip implant, which he used as a research project in “intelligent” buildings where he opened doors without a smart card and turned on lights by entering a room.  After having the implant in his hand for nine days, he decided future implants should be placed nearer the brain – into the spinal cord or onto the optic nerve, for more power to send and receive sensory signals.

In 2002 a Canadian artist implanted her hands with microchips from a veterinary clinic.  Two years later, a Minnesota corporation got an FDA approval and classification for a miniature, implantable microchip to be inserted in a human’s arm under the skin.  The VeriChip brand of microchips stores a patient’s unique ID number that medical personnel may use to locate the patient’s file.

So, VeriChip became a by-prescription-only Class II medical device for use in humans, as did generic devices that operate the same way.  That classification authorized immediate marketing of VeriChip and generic equivalents for under-skin implantation in humans. Continue reading →

Who Wants to be Microchipped?

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, August 18, 2017 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Eighteen days ago a Wisconsin technology firm implanted tiny rice-sized microchips in 40 of its 50 employees, who then wore T-shirts saying, “I Got Chipped.”  The company said chipped workers can stop wearing badges and log onto computers or buy food in the cafeteria.  Reporters from USA TODAY and a local newspaper were in the company cafeteria to watch a local tattoo artist use a syringe to insert a microchip in one hand of each worker that volunteered to be implanted.  There is no word about the status of the ten workers that did not volunteer.

That reminded me of Georgia legislation that’s been introduced since 2008 to require prior personal consent before a microchip can be implanted.  You might be surprised to know that powerful legislators, repeatedly, refuse to allow such a bill to get to the House floor for a vote.  Therefore, without a law to prevent it, microchip implants could become a requirement in numerous situations, such as employment and healthcare.

Also, you might be surprised to know that prisoners are the only people in Georgia who are legally protected from forcible implants of microchips.  While the House has refused to pass a law preventing forced microchip implantation, the House did pass a 2009 electronic surveillance law that prohibits forced chipping of prisoners.

Microchip implants for medical reasons was mentioned during a hearing at the Capitol when a state Public Health official suggested microchips could have been used to curb the swine flu epidemic.  He referred to a device programmed to remotely track individuals and remotely identify infections they might have, an obvious reference to the microchip FDA classifies as a Class 2 medical device that can remotely track, locate, and identify an implanted individual.   Continue reading →