Wednesday, October 24, 2007
SELLING THE CHIP
Injecting identification chips into dogs and other animals is moving along without much objection. Attempts are being made to convince the caregivers of Alzheimer's patients to have them chipped as well, but there is a larger roadblock when it comes to people. There are too many voices talking about the "mark of the beast" where chips are concerned. Also there is too much fear about long-term consequences related to the security of the information.
Across the northern border a program called "No Child Without" is placing medical alert information on bracelet and necklace for children up to age 14, so that a quick response is possible in a medical emergency. The Catholic School Board in St. Catharines has just joined the program.
Students receive their choice of a bracelet or necklet listing their medical conditions, allergies and or medications with their identification number, a wallet card, access to the 24-hour emergency hotline, notification of personal emergency contacts at the time of emergency and a follow-up with parents after the emergency call is made to the hotline. Each year on their anniversary date MedicAlert sends a letter to participating parents reminding them to ensure their child's medical profile is up to date.
Realizing that they are not always available by phone on a moment's notice, parents, I suspect, will get comfortable with that. But we know how children behave. They take things off. They put it on somebody else's body. They leave it on their desk. They forget it on the dresser. They lose it. It gets tangled up with a tree branch and breaks off. It comes off in a wrestling match with a friend.
All we have to do to know the potential is consider what little boys look like at the end of lunch recess--shirt hanging out, hole in the knee of their pants, hair atumble. Think about the jewelry we buy for little girls. It lasts a day or two and then we find it in pieces laying around somewhere.
When parents have become comitted to the idea that it is necessary to have medical information about their child with them 24/7, and realize how many times they have had to replace the medical alert bracelet, the chip manufacturer will have an easy sell.
