State Would Outlaw Mandatory Microchip Implants

An RFID chip for implantation in animals. (Image credit: Digital Angel)

RFID microchips implanted in humans? Who would think of such a thing? Here are a few examples:

You're not even safe from being 'chipped when you're dead.

But you'll be safe in Wisconsin, if State Representative Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, gets his bill passed. A proposal moving through the Wisconsin Legislature would prohibit anyone from requiring people to have the tiny RFID chips embedded in them or doing so without their knowledge. Violators would face fines of up to $10,000.

Verichip Corporation, based in Florida, has federal approval to implant these rice grain-sized RFID chips in people. The procedure is very similar to getting a shot; typical sites for implantation are the back of the hand and the upper arm.

Wisconsin's former governor Tommy Thompson supported the idea of chip implantation for medical identification reasons; he even joined Verichip's board of directors. However, he hasn't gotten the chip himself.

If this bill passes, Wisconsin would be the first state to ban mandatory microchip implants.

(via Slashdot).

(This Science Fiction in the News story used with permission from Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction.)

Bill Christensen catalogues the inventions, technology and ideas of science fiction writers at his website, Technovelgy. He is a contributor to Live Science.