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."