By DAVID STREITFELD (June 7, 2002 11:35 a.m. EDT) - Eight people recently have been 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 a Florida company. 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 a safety precaution," explained Nate Isaacson. The retired building contractor entered his Fort Lauderdale doctor's office on May 10 as an 83-year-old with Alzheimer's. He left it a cyborg, a man who is also a little bit of a computer. The chip was put in Isaacson's upper back, effectively invisible unless 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 Solutions Inc., the maker of what it calls the VeriChip, says that it will soon have a prototype of a much more complex device, one that is able to receive GPS satellite signals and transmit a person's location. It's a prospect 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 Center. "Parents will 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, which says it has a waiting list of 4,000 to 5,000 people who want a VeriChip, plans to operate a "chipmobile" that visits Florida senior citizen's centers. An estimated 4 million people in the United States have Alzheimer's, with more than 10 percent of them in Florida. Jeffrey and Leslie Jacobs and their teenage son Derek, whose "chipping" was a national media event, don't have problems with dementia. The Boca Raton, Fla., family has a mixture of ailments and interests: Jeffrey has been treated for Hodgkin's disease and suffers from other conditions for which he takes 16 medications, while Derek is allergic to certain antibiotics. Mostly, though, he's a computer buff who considers the procedure nifty. As for Leslie, she's merely hoping to feel more secure in an insecure world. Click the link below to read the rest of the article... |