Microchipping people: the rise of the electrophorus.(Bioethics)

AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION (auto-ID) is the process of identifying a living or non-living thing without direct human intervention. Before auto-ID only manual identification techniques existed, such as tattoos and fingerprints, which did not allow for the automatic capture of data. Many researchers credit the vision of a cashless society to the capabilities of auto-ID. Since the 1960s automatic identification has proliferated, especially for mass-market applications such as electronic banking and citizen ID. Together with increases in computer processing power, storage equipment and networking capabilities, miniaturisation and mobility have heightened the significance of auto-ID to e-business, especially mobile commerce. Citizens are now carrying multiple devices with multiple IDs, including ATM cards, credit cards, private and public health insurance cards, retail loyalty cards, student cards, library cards, gymnasium cards, driving licences and passports.

More sophisticated auto-ID devices like smart card and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and transponders that house unique lifetime identifiers or biometric templates are increasingly being considered for business-to-consumer and government-to-citizen transactions. The United States is enforcing the use of biometrics on passports due to the increasing threats of terrorism, and Britain has announced that it is considering implanting illegal immigrants with RFID transponders. Internationally, countries are also taking measures against fraudulent claims made on social security by updating their citizen identification systems with more secure end-user devices.

The relative ease of performing electronic transactions by using auto-ID has raised a number of social, cultural, religious and ethical issues. Among others, civil libertarians, religious advocates and conspiracy theorists have long cast doubts on the technology and the ultimate use of the information gathered by it. Claims that auto-ID technology impinges on human rights, the right to privacy, and that eventually it will lead to totalitarian control of the population have been put forward since the 1970s.

This paper aims to explore these themes with a particular emphasis on emerging human transponder implant technology. At present, several US companies are selling e-business services that allow for the tracking and monitoring of individuals using RFID implants in the subcutaneous layer of the skin and Global Positioning System (GPS) wristwatches worm by subscribers. To date specialist literature has not consistently addressed philosophical issues related to chip implants for humans. Credible articles on implanting humans are mostly interviews conducted with proponents of the technology, such as representatives of Applied Digital Solutions (ADSX), makers of the VeriChip system solution; Professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, who is well known for his Cyborg 1.0 and 2.0 projects; and "implantees" like the Jacobs family in the USA who bear RFID transponder implants.

More recently a handful of academic papers on human transponder implants have surfaced, addressing specific themes such as legal and privacy concerns, ethical and cultural impacts, technological problems and health concerns. While there is a considerable amount of other material available, especially on the internet, much of it is subjective and not properly sourced.

This discussion seeks first to provide a sober presentation of cross-disciplinary perspectives on topical auto-ID issues with an emphasis on human transponder implants, and second to document some of the more thought-provoking discussion which has taken place. Evidence has been gathered from a wide variety of sources. A thread runs through the paper telling the story of not just auto-ID but the impacts of the information technology and telecommunications (IT&T) revolution. Consequently, there is a predictive element to the presentation as well, which is meant to confront the reader with some present and future scenarios. The "what if" questions are important, as it is hoped they will generate public debate on the social, cultural, religious and ethical implications of RFID implants in humans.

FROM PERSONAL computers (PCs) to laptops to personal digital assistants (PDAs), and from landline phones to cellular phones to wireless wristwatches, miniaturisation and mobility have acted to shift the way in which computing is perceived by humans. Lemonick captures this pace of change well in the following excerpt: