Saturday, April 16, 2005

I’ve Got You Under My Skin

In October, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the VeriChip in humans. VeriChip is a microchip, the size of a grain of rice, which can be implanted under the skin with a simple injection. Like the bar codes on consumer products, it stores coded information that can be read with a scanner. It literally allows us to be “checked out,” like an interactive Social Security Number engrafted in the body.

The chip’s creator, Applied Digital Solutions, initially emphasized the device’s potential medical applications. For $150 to $200, it said, you could have your entire medical history—allergies, medications, previous ailments, and the like—encoded and implanted on your person, so that a doctor or other medical professional could, with a quick scan, have access to this information before treatment. The information could either be stored on the chip itself or in a separate secure database unlocked by scanning....(More Here)

No comments: