The European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) has presented its opinion to the European Commission on ITC implants in the human body. The EGE is an independent, multidisciplinary and pluralist advisory group, composed of twelve members. Though some implants, such as cardial pacemakers, are ethically unproblematic, non-medical implants pose a potential threat to the human dignity and democratic society, finds EGE. The principles of data protection must be applied as soon as any data can be collected through the implants about human bodies. Furthermore, ICT implants (in wearable computing such as RFID tags but also directly implanted under the skin with for example the VeriChip) should only be allowed if there are no other less invasive means of achieving the same legitimate goals. Though it seems inevitable in certain circumstances for scientific research to experiment with implants, the freedom of research must be strongly limited by ethical principles.
The European Group aims to open up a broad political debate in all EU member states about the specific applications that can be accepted and regulated. They express concerns that non-medical applications are not yet covered by law, especially when it comes to data protection.
EGE Opinion 20 (16.03.2005)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/european_group_ethics/docs/issue4.pdf