I've been considering being "chippe...

I've been considering being "chipped," having a rice grain-sized microchip implanted in my arm.

especially liked lovers and livestock ranchers lengthy have implanted chips in dogs, cats, horses, sheep, steady iguanas as an ID. If Fido come bys lost, the dog pound can scan the chip and find his household

In new years, chips have been moving up the sustenance chain. Some people, such as the attorney general of Mexico and his staff, were chipped for security drifts Patrons of a Barcelona beach bludgeon opted to have the implants with antennas linked with their charge cards in such a manner they can party without ne for purse or wallet.

VeriChip Corp. now is promoting the chips, approved brace years ago by the aliment and Drug Administration, as an aid in medical emergencies.

The idea is to have the chip speak for you when you can't speak for yourself. the public with Alzheimer's disease who be attendant to wander would be prime candidates for a chip. Millions of other family with heart disease, diabetes, hardship seizure disorders, as well as transplant recipients and race with implanted devices, such as pacemakers, s joint replacements also are candidates.

for a like reason far, only 200 people, primarily forward the East Coast where the company's VeriMed program has been revolveed out, have signed on. The operation to implant a chip in the right arm is considered virtually painless and complication exempt It costs between $200 and $400 plus an annual charge to maintain the records online. The records contain the individual's ID, primary care doctor, next-of-kin, medicines he's taking and medical history.

single recipient is William Koretsky, a Bergen shire N.J., cop, who has diabetes and was chipped as a precaution 1oe years ago. During a high-speed chase in May, his brakes failed and he slammed into a tree He was left in a daze, going in and not at home of consciousness. The ER staff scanned him and struggleed up his name and medical history online, giving them a head start in succession stabilizing him and monitoring his relations sugar. He was the first character to benefit from being chipped. Koretsky told me he considers the chip a "home run"

I started to think about being chipped myself.

Back in February 2005 I had brace stents placed in my coronary arteries following a mild heart attack. I don't wear a Medic Alert bracelet, if it were not that I do carry a card in my wallet describing my But I have nothing upon me about the medicines I now take.

Would a chip make sense?

I decided to come by some opinions.

I asked Richard Seelig, a physician and vice president of medical applications at VeriChip: "The best way to appreciate [the chip's] value is ask yourself right now to list the manufacturer of your s when they were placed, which hospital, who was the cardiologist, the diameter of the s and, if they are coated with a medication, what protoplast Now imagine you are confused, disoriented or unconscious. to what extent would a treating physician know you have pair stents (a chest X-ray would pick them up further that's all) and the above details about them."

If I was knocked loopy I might have pester retrieving my name let alone the information.

When I mentioned I was considering being chipped, I could give an account of I was making some populace uncomfortable, as though I were contemplating becoming a cyborg. (Cyborg Wolinsky. hales intriguing.)

I got a inferior opinion from my cardiologist, David Looyenga. Right not upon he thought chipping might be righteous for patients with memory impairment. nevertheless he basically concluded chipping was a bad idea. He cogitation that the chances of someone being brought into the hospital unable to communicate about an important health puzzle were slim.

Looyenga had a conservative Christian upbringing, and that early training triggered a connection between chipping and the Satanic "Mark of the Beast," which the recent Testament warns will be placed upon people's foreheads and hands to enable them to bribe things, and also will attract the storm of anger of God.

This was beyond my religious sensibilities.

More significantly for me he said the numbers onward the chip reminded him of the tattoos the Nazis state on concentration camp inmates.

Clearly VeriChip is facing a certain number of formidable marketing challenges.

Finally, I asked privacy advocate Liz McIntyre, co-author of Spychips: by what mode Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your each Move With RFID, if I'd be crazy to be chipped. She worries that one time people are embedded with numbers, they can be tracked and monitored and "once they can be tracked and monitored, they can be controlled"

I imagine it would have made a better story to have had the chip implanted. As things stand, the infrastructure hasn't been established in Chicago. In the extreme point I decided to take my chances.

For now at least, goodbye Mr Chip.

hwolinsky@suntimes.com

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