Posted: 2/17/2002 8:11:41 AM EDT
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Jeffrey, a 48-year-old cancer survivor, has more practical reasons for wanting the VeriChip.
"If something happens to me and there's no one that knows anything about my medical history, any paramedic or hospital worker, if they have the scanner -- which hopefully everyone will have at some point –- will be able to scan all my information," he said. "It could save my life."
Leslie, 46, said she was motivated by security concerns. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit close to home: Her family lives in South Florida, where authorities say 14 of the 19 hijackers lived. Her office is a block away from tabloid publisher American Media, where a photo editor died after contracting anthrax.
The world would be a safer place if authorities had a tamper-proof way of identifying people, she said.
"I have nothing to hide, so I wouldn't mind having the chip for verification," Leslie Jacobs said. "I already have an ID card, so why not have a chip?"
Pilots could be chipped and scanned before they entered the cockpit, she suggested, to ensure the person sitting at the controls was indeed an airline employee. Her husband went further, suggesting that violent criminals and known terrorists should be routinely chipped as a matter of policy.
The idea of requiring people to be implanted was brought up by Applied Digital Solutions CEO Richard Sullivan in an interview with the Palm Beach Post, in which he suggested microchips be used to track foreigners visiting the United States. (The company has since downplayed his comments.)
But an X-Files-type scheme where everyone is forcibly marked and monitored by the government worries both civil libertarians and Christians, who believe new technologies such as biometrics and biochips may be the feared "Mark of the Beast" of Biblical lore that is described in Revelations 13:16:
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name."
Gary Wohlscheid, the president of The Last Day Ministries –- a group espousing the belief that humanity is on the verge of an apocalyptic showdown between the forces of good and evil –- believes the VeriChip could be this mark. Although the chip is not yet small enough to be injected into the forehead or right hand at the moment, it could be in the future, he said.
"Out of all the technologies with potential to be the mark of the beast, the VeriChip has got the best possibility right now," he said. "It's definitely not the final product, but it's a step toward it. Within three to four years, people will be required to use it. Those that reject it will be put to death."
Wohlscheid felt so strongly about this possibility that he created a Web page to warn others of the microchip's evil potential.
To quell Christians' fears, Bolton, the Jacobses and a theologian recently appeared on the 700 Club, hosted by televangelist Pat Robertson.
Privacy expert Richard Smith scoffed at the Jacobses' plans.
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