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 on the legal, social and ethical implications of the use and further application of these technologies.

Mark N. Gasson is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading, UK. Eleni Kosta is a Senior Legal Researcher in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law & ICT (ICRI), Faculty of Law, KU Leuven, Belgium. Diana M. Bowman is an Assistant Professor in the Risk Science Centre and the Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, USA and a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Law, KU Leuven, Belgium.