IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2017 - 51
to challenge the use of a general order concerning
RFID implementation.
Risk of Injury
When an RFID device is implanted, there may be a risk
to the recipient. This risk can arise from anaphylactic
shock associated with the implantation or some subsequent reaction to the device. Arguably, this risk is
comparable to the risk which arises from vaccinations. The risk of anaphylaxis has been shown to be
10.5 episodes per 100 000 person-years in a study of
220 000 children and adolescents enrolled in a health
maintenance scheme [13] and 0.65 cases/million doses
in a study of 7 644 049 vaccine doses in children
and adolescents [14].
In 2016, the High Court of Australia provided a judgment which is appropriate to this analysis. In Military
Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission v Benjamin James Edward May [2016] HCA 19, the High
Court found that an illness caused by a vaccination was
not an "injury" as defined in s 4(1) of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Cth). The consequence for May was that he was not entitled to
compensation under s 14 of that Act. The initial Tribunal and a single Federal Court judge on appeal from
that Tribunal concluded that Mr. May's claim failed
because he had not proved a "sudden or identifiable
physiological change."
The Full Court Federal Court upheld a further ap peal by May. It found that there was no need for a
medical diagnosis to demonstrate a causal link
between his illness and the vaccinations. However, the
High Court determined that Mr. May's illness was not
an injury.
This judgment is likely to provide a strong indication
that implantation that causes illness but not injury may
be an acceptable risk from a military perspective.
RFID Risk Assessment
The requirement for military personnel to wear "dog
tags" is widely practiced globally. An extension of the
general order that enforces this requirement to RFID
implants would seem to be consistent with general
orders requiring military personnel to have vaccinations.
There are operational and injury risks to be taken
into account. However, a 2016 decision by the High
Court of Australia indicates that an illness caused by
implantation would not be considered to be an injury
and this would be a key consideration in risk assessment associated with RFID implantation.
Acknowledgment
presenting an earlier draft of this paper to the Ninth
Workshop on the Social Implications of National Security at the University of Melbourne in July 2016.
Author Information
Rob Nicholls is with the School of Taxation and Business
Law, UNSW Business School, Sydney, Australia. Email:
r.nicholls@unsw.edu.au.
References
[1] A. Sani, M. Rajab, R. Foster, and Y. Hao, "Antennas and propagation of implanted RFIDs for pervasive healthcare applications,"
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[2] J.E. Katz and R.E. Rice, "Public views of mobile medical devices
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[10] R. Lodato, P.P. Valentini, and G. Marrocco, "A structural antenna
for UHF-RFID implant into limb prosthesis," in Proc. 2015 IEEE Int.
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[11] X. Liu, J.L. Berger, A. Ogirala, and M.H. Mickle, "A touch probe
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[12] A. Venkatasubramanian and C. Blair, "Modeling and design of
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[13] K. Bohlke, R.L. Davis, F. DeStefano, S.M. Marcy, M.M. Braun,
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[14] K. Bohlke, R.L. Davis, S.M. Marcy, M.M. Braun, F. DeStefano,
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The author thanks the School of Taxation and Business
Law at the UNSW Business School for its support in
march 2017
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