Microchips for humans

MICROCHIP implants are no longer the domain of cats and dogs, according to Dr Katina Michael of the University of Wollongong.  

Tonight, Dr Michael will be joined by her husband, Dr MG Michael at a Uni in the Brewery session in Wollongong at 5.30pm. The pair will discuss why people in the United States are increasingly volunteering to have microchip implants and the ethical and legal issues surrounding the practice.  

"The people that are volunteering to be microchipped in the United States are the ones with health problems, so people with diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, dementia and epilepsy," she said.  

"So if they have been incapacitated and become unconscious ... the microchip allows emergency staff to look up certain information."  

Dr Michael said the chips were already in use at 65 US hospitals. She said it was no longer science fiction and the microchip, implanted under the skin of a person's right arm, was mainly for identification.  

In South America 160 law officials are fitted with microchips for identification in case they are killed or kidnapped.  

Citation: Jodie Minus, May 16, 2007, "Microchips for humans", Illawarra Mercury.