Is Big Brother behind YOU?
 
The long arm of... The doctor?

If you've been a reader of mine — either of the Daily Dose or of
my newsletter — for longer than a fly's life span, you've heard me
raving (some would call it sounding the alarm) about the
increasingly invasive tenor of today's medicine. What do I mean,
exactly? I mean things like doctors prying into our lives and
making judgments and decisions that affect more than simply our
medical picture.

Need an example?

A few years ago, I wrote about the subversive practice of modern
pediatricians asking probing questions of their child patients about
the presence of firearms in the house where they live. The leftist
California state legislature even made such questions about gun
ownership MANDATORY of Golden State pediatricians...

This isn't the only example of this kind of thing, either. The
instance I just learned of that happened in the great state of
Pennsylvania rivals this one in sheer audacity. According to a
recent Associated Press article, a PA man's driver's license was
suspended after he told his doctor he habitually consumed a six-
pack of beer a day. Not that he drove drunk. Not that he drank on
the job.  Not that he had a drinking problem.  Simply because he
tipped a few brews every night at HIS HOME.

Apparently, the doctor called the cops after treating the man for an
irregular heartbeat because Pennsylvania (read: California east)
law requires doctors to report to the authorities anything they learn
about a patient that could conceivably impair his or her ability to
safely drive. And this meddling M.D. thought the patients nightly
sixer at his house was a threat to everyone on PA's highways.

The article mentions nothing about the patient having any prior
record for alcohol abuse, drug use, or driving under the influence.

Now I'm not advocating six beers a night for everyone (one or
two, definitely), but what I am saying is this: Except in the event of
an outbreak of serious, contagious disease, it isn't up to
DOCTORS to determine what a person's risk to the rest of the
population is — especially if they're going to be such sissies about
it. I mean jeez, six beers between dinner and bedtime isn't enough
to impair a fully-grown man (especially one with a high tolerance
for alcohol) the next day.

And doctors should know that.

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The FDA is getting under your skin

The age of medical privacy (or rather, what has passed for it for the
last few decades) is rapidly coming to a close.

Our beloved FDA recently approved an under-skin implantable
computer chip that'll enable anyone with the know-how and the
right scanning equipment to access people's personal information
— including their entire medical histories. About the size of a
grain of rice, the chip is easily implanted under a patient's skin
using a needle and syringe.

Once in place, the chip is invisible and uses radio frequencies to
convey detailed information about the host human when scanned at
the doctor's office. The system is already in use in other countries
like Mexico and Spain. Called VeriChip by its maker, the micro-
sized information file uses a code not unlike the UPC found on
retail products to allow health professionals to access the most
intimate details of a patient's medical histories.

While I can certainly see the benefits of having instant access to
such facts — especially in the instances of acute and emergency
care, I'm leery of the possibilities for abuse. Already in Spain,
night-clubbers are using their chips to speed drink orders and keep
track of their bar tabs, according to the article.

Far out as it may seem, I envision the day when retail stores scan
you as you walk in, then store personnel sidle up and try to sell you
things based on the information contained in your chip. Say they
find out you've got psoriasis. They'll try to pitch you a bunch of
skin creams or something...

My global point is this: Technology is a sword which cuts both
ways. It can render great benefits and also expose us to unimagined
hassles. And government agencies like the FDA should think about
this kind of thing before they grant carte blanche to some new
techno-gadget...

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