Human ICT Implants: Technical, Legal and Ethical Considerations

Human information and communication technology (ICT) implants have developed for many years in a medical context. Such applications have become increasingly advanced, in some cases modifying fundamental brain function. Today, comparatively low-tech implants are being increasingly employed in non-therapeutic contexts, with applications ranging from the use of ICT implants for VIP entry into nightclubs, automated payments for goods, access to secure facilities and for those with a high risk of being kidnapped. Commercialisation and growing potential of human ICT implants have generated debate over the ethical, legal and social aspects of the technology, its products and application. Despite stakeholders calling for greater policy and legal certainty within this area, gaps have already begun to emerge between the commercial reality of human ICT implants and the current legal frameworks designed to regulate these products. This book focuses on the latest technological developments and onthe legal, social and ethical implications of the use and further application of these technologies.

Human ICT implants: From invasive to pervasive.- Human ICT implants: From restorative application to human enhancement.- Potential application areas for RFID implants.- Restoring function: Application exemplars of medical ICT implants.- Passive human ICT implants: Risks and possible solutions.- Implantable medical devices: Privacy and security concerns.- Carrying implants and carrying risks; Human ICT implants and liability.- Implants and human rights, In particular bodily integrity.- Implanting implications: data protection challenges arising from the use of human ICT implants.- Cheating with implants: Implications of the hidden information advantage of bionic ears and eyes.- Ethical Implications of Human ICT Implants.- Pieces of ME: On identity and information communications technology implants.- The societal reality of that which was once science fiction.