Dear Abby: Just Thinking...About Microchipping People

[delphi]

Source

DEAR ABBY: I am a single mother with three children. Several years ago we bought a puppy. When we got her, we were told if she ever gets lost, she could be located through the chip that had been placed in her. (The breeder said it was just a "shot.") You can also buy a car these days with a global positioning device installed so the car can be located if it is stolen.

The cost for the police to find a missing child has got to be astronomical. Wouldn't it be much cheaper to come up with global positioning chips for our children?

They do it for dogs and cats. When will we make our children safer than we do our pets and our cars? -- JUST THINKING IN FLORIDA

DEAR JUST THINKING: You have come up with an interesting concept, and not just one for small children. It could work for members of the military and workers who go abroad to dangerous locations, and also for people suffering from Alzheimer's disease who might wander.

Comments

[torachan]

DO NOT WANT.

[jo_lasalle]

I have to say, I find this letter, and the earnest response, utterly hilarious. *g* They should build airbags on kids, too, so they don't hurt themselves upon impact.

[softestbullet]

Lol, same here. "JUST THINKING" indeed.

[eleanorjane]

...is Dear Abby trolling her own column? I mean, surely that letter's not real.

Please tell me that letter's not real? Please?

[vass]

I hear Elizabeth Moon would agree.

Quite apart from all the moral and ethical problems with this, do they not think of the practical problems? In particular, the likelihood of an undesirable person hacking in to the location feed, and how trivially easy it is to remove one of those chips once they've located the target.

[redbird]

Nicola Griffith, Slow River, starts with something like this. Not from the "find this person" thing, but from what identity theft looks like when it involves having the thief cut into your body.

[vass]

Wow, that's nastier than I was imagining. I'd only gotten as far as kidnapping, not identity theft. I'll have to read that one.

[minoanmiss]

AHahahah oh my.

[wordweaverlynn]

It's been available for ten years: Solusat began selling VeriChip -- which is similar to the biochips used to track cattle and lost pets -- in Mexico in July; it's been sold in the United States since October 2002.

[taselby]

You know, I joke about this when my youngest (12 yo) goes wandering, but JFC, even the kids know I'm not really serious. This is like "Dystopian Future 101" stuff.