RFID + HIV/AIDS in Indonesia: A Post-Modern Scarlet Letter?
November 26, 2008
From Yahoo!: Lawmakers in Indonesia‘s remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips — part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.
Local health workers and AIDS activists called the plan “abhorrent.”
“People with AIDS aren’t animals; we have to respect their rights,” said Tahi Ganyang Butarbutar, a prominent Papuan activist.
But legislator John Manangsang said by implanting small computer chips beneath the skin of “sexually aggressive” patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and ultimately punish those who deliberately infect others with up to six months in jail or a $5,000 fine.
A few prickly questions come to mind quickly: Who gets to define “sexually aggressive”, and will this categorization include people whose only crime is having HIV/AIDS? And finally, will there be any kind of legal protection (for the people who get tagged) against being scanned without their consent, being discriminated against, and/or persecuted (or physically abused) for the “Scarlet A” they will carry subcutaneously?
Beyond the belief that a patients’ right to privacy should be respected, I also have serious misgivings about the possible negative secondary effects of such an effort – it could very well drive those who suspect that they have HIV/AIDS underground so as to avoid being tagged with the “Scarlet A”.
And if that were to come to pass, that would indeed be a BadThing™ for all involved.
