NEW HAMPSHIRE RFID STUDY COMMISSION SEES CHIPPING KIDS AND CORPSES AS ACCEPTABLE

Dr. Katherine Albrecht argued for implant restrictions, but was overridden by industry.

CONCORD, NH: The NEW HAMPSHIRE RFID STUDY COMMISSION yesterday voted in support of language that would allow guardians and parents to implant RFID microchips into children. The Study Commission was created when the state Senate killed a bill which would have required labeling on all products containing RFID-tagged products in NH and is comprised of lawmakers, industry and retail representatives, as well as members of the public and state law enforcement officials.

Dr. Katherine Albrecht, who will be speaking on RFID at the Hope for America Conference in Tempe, AZ on December 8th [conference site- http://www.rtrlive.com], was appointed to the Commission by the governor of NH to represent consumer interests. This group meets once per month and one of its tasks is to provide recommendations to the state legislature including recommendations on possible legislation.

In the Oct 17th meeting in Concord, NH several aspects of proposed legislation were debated and several important votes were taken.

In this marathon meeting spanning three and a half hour long meeting the commission voted to remove specific language in proposed legislation submitted by Rep. Neal Kurk, which was designed to raise the bar on the microchipping of humans. In a 9-5 vote, the committee voted to strike down language requiring that anyone receiving a human implant must be at least eighteen years of age and eliminated language that would have required an individual's own personal consent to receive a microchip in their body.

The original text of Rep. Kurk's legislation read, "Consent of a guardian, guardian ad litem, attorney-in-fact, parent or other agent shall not be considered adequate consent."

The new language proposed by industry representative Richard Varn removed the words "shall not" and replaced them with "shall".

In addition the Commission struck out an entire provision which would have prohibited the microchipping of corpses. There was a discussion about the fact that many people have religious objections to receiving a microchip post-mortem and see it as a desecration of their body.

The committee considered allowing a provision which would have allowed an opt-out policy wherein all corpses would be potentially subject to chipping unless the individual had opted out while alive through some applicable directive.

Once realizing that they had the majority on that point, they moved to completely strike the language prohibiting corpse chipping altogether. This was discussed after people expressed dismay that their deceased relatives had been chipped as part of the cleanup of hurricane Katrina.

"These votes were not surprising considering the makeup of the commission," said Dr. Katherine Albrecht. "Those with Pro-RFID views are disproportionately represented on the Commission. We should clarify that this is really just an advisory body, and while we will be making recommendations we're not responsible for enacting public policy. Although it seems obvious that the deck is stacked on the Commission in favor of industry, there is still a chance to get the type of bill that we want once this goes out to our legislature."