Senate Approves Bill to Prohibit Microchipping Without Consent

(WSB Radio State Capitol Bureau/AP) -- State senators are moving to protect Georgians from being implanted with a microchip without their permission.

The Senate voted 47-2 on Thursday to approve a bill banning the practice without consent. Doing so would be a misdemeanor considered assault and battery.

The VeriChip has been approved by the FDA for implantation in humans. The human-implantable radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchip responds with a unique 16 digit number which could be then linked with information about the user held on a database for identity verification, medical records access and other uses.

But conspiracy theories also abound on the internet where people claim to have been implanted against their will and tracked by the government and others.

Sen. Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville), who sponsored SB 235, says he doesn't know anyone who's been implanted with a microchip against their will, but calls it a proactive measure aimed at anticipating technological advances that may infringe on people's rights.

"Technology is great, but it can also cross the line," he says.

Even with permission, implantation could only be performed by a doctor. Anyone who has a microchip implanted without their permission would be entitled to sue for damages.

The bill now heads to the House where Representatives Barry Loudermilk (R - Cassville) and Ed Setlzer (R - Acworth) sponsored similar legislation two years ago.

"Where I would separate the conspiracy theorists to the realists is the technology has advanced to where it is real today," Loudermilk tells WSB's Sandra Parrish.

Setzler disavows what he calls the "microchip community" but says the state is five to ten years away from where employees of a company or anyone else could be forced to have one implanted against their will.

"Unless we're committed to addressing things before their urgent, pressing, in our face problems...we're going to have a real mess on our hands from the standpoint of rights," he says.