Humans receive identification chips

Eight people will be injected with silicon chips, making them scannable just like a jar of peanut butter in the supermarket checkout line.  The miniature devices, about the size of a grain of rice, were developed by Florida company Applied Digital Solutions.  They will be targeted to families of Alzheimer's patients - one of the fastest growing groups in American society - as well as others who have complicated medical histories.

"It's safety precaution," explained Nate Isaacson, 83, who has Alzheimer's.  The retired building contractor will leave his Fort Lauderdale doctor's office Friday as a cyborg, a man who is also a little bit of a computer.  The chip will be put in Isaacson's upper back, effectively invisible until a hand-held scanner is waved over it.  The scanner uses a radio frequency to energize the dormant chip, which then transmits a signal containing an identification number.  Information about Isaacson is cross-referenced under that number in a central computer registry.  Emergency room personnel, for instance, could find out who Isaacson is and where he lives.  They'd know that he is prone to forgetfulness, that he has a pacemaker and is allergic to penicillin.

"You never know what's going to happen when you go out the door," said Isaacson's wife, Micki.  "Should something happen, he's never going to remember those things."

Applied Digital, maker of what it calls the VeriChip, says it will soon have a prototype of a much more complex device, one able to receive GPS satellite signals and transmit a person's location.  This prospect is deeply unsettling to privacy advocates, no matter how voluntary the process may initially appear.  "Who gets to decide who gets chipped?" asked Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre.  "Parents may decide that their kids should be implanted, or maybe their own aging parents.  It's an easier way to manage someone, like putting a leash on a pet."

Applied Digital says it has a waiting list of 4,000 to 5,000 people who want a VeriChip; they plan to operate a "chipmobile" that visits Florida senior citizen's centres.  An estimated 4 million people nationally have Alzheimer's - and more than 10% of them live in Florida.

Not Just for Those with Alzheimer's

Jeffrey and Leslie Jacobs and their teenage son Derek, whose "chipping" will be a national media event, don't have problems with dementia.  The Boca Raton, Florida family has a mixture of ailments and interests: Jeffrey, 48, has been treated for Hodgkin's disease and has suffered through a car crash, a degenerative spinal condition, chronic eye disease and abdominal operations - he takes 16 medications.  His injuries have forced him to quit his dental practice.  Son Derek, 14, is allergic to certain antibiotics.  Mostly, though, he's a computer buff who considers the procedure "nifty".  As for Leslie, 46, she's merely hoping to feel more secure in an insecure world.

A third group readying themselves for the simple outpatient procedure are executives of Applied Digital, a publicly traded company based in Palm Beach.  Even their publicist is doing it.  Getting chipped is easy.  Making it more useful than a piece of body art will be harder.  "There are a lot of practical issues here, as well as ethical and privacy issues," said Mark Pafford, associate executive director of the Alzheimer's Association's Southeast Florida chapter.  "If it were me, I would use something tried and proven, like an ID bracelet or a necklace that has an 800 number."

Applied Digital says nearly all major hospitals in the West Palm Beach area will be equipped with the scanners.  Yet St. Mary's Medical Center, a major trauma center approached at random by a reporter, said no one had contacted that hospital.

Isaacson's family says he has a bracelet.  He also has a wallet with an ID.  "The VeriChip is more of a 'God forbid,'" said Sherry Gottlieb, Isaacson's daughter.  "You feel you have to have it, but hope you never need it."

Applied Digital is charging $200 for a chip, plus a $10 monthly fee to store the information.  As the first patients, Isaacson and the Jacobses are getting their VeriChips for free, but that's the only financial consideration they are receiving.

Isaacson's doctor, while agreeing to perform the insertion, has some qualms about it.  He consented to be interviewed but asked his name not be revealed until Friday.   "I think this is going to be the cutting edge of the future, because quick information saves lives," Isaacson's doctor said.  "I get calls 24 hours a day informing me a patient's had a stroke or a heart attack and is in the hospital.  I have to go to my office, get the chart, and then go to the hospital.  All that takes time, while the patient is being treated with limited information."

And yet this family practitioner doesn't see himself chipping any youthful patients.  While he believes the procedure is safe and the chip can always be removed, he's worried about long-term liability.  "You do something to a young person, you may be responsible for years afterwards.  He may be carrying this chip for 70 or 80 years."

Long before then - by the end of the year, in fact - the next generation of devices will be tested.  An embedded chip with GPS capabilities will be slightly larger than a quarter and require actual surgery to implant.  Unlike the VeriChip, it also will require Food and Drug Administration approval.  That will slow down its US introduction.

"We believe we've solved the battery issue, which leaves the question of an antenna that can transmit through skin tissue," said Keith Bolton, Applied Digital's chief scientist.  The devices will be powered by lithium ion batteries, which can be charged remotely from outside the body.  Applied Digital says it has received considerable interest in the VeriChip from both commercial and government sources in Brazil and Mexico, and expects the embedded system to be big wherever there's a big threat of kidnapping.  

On Friday, the Jacobses had the chips implanted in their arms in Boca Raton.  The insertion took about a minute under local anæsthesia.  "It's been really easy and I feel a lot better that I have it," Jeffrey Jacobs said after the implant.

The Food and Drug Administration had said in April that it would not regulate the implant as long as it contains no medical data.   The chips used by the Jacobs family contain only telephone numbers and information about previous medications.  Company officials hope to eventually include more extensive information - they said it would be particularly valuable for those who suffer from Alzheimer's or others with difficulty providing medical information on their own.

VeriChip is expected to sell for about $200.  A scanner used to read information contained in the chip costs between $1,000 and $3,000.  The data can be printed out.  The chip could also be used as a security tool which has stirred debate over its potential use as a device to track people or invade privacy, but Jacobs and his family brushed aside these arguments.  Anyone can be tracked through the Internet and e-mail, credit cards and cellular phones, they say.

I view it as inevitable that infants will be implanted with tracking chips at birth in the future.  There are a lot of people out there who "want to feel more secure in an insecure world" - as if a chip will somehow help.   Of course a secondary industry of removing chips from those who don't want to be tracked will very likely spring up in the future too.