Editor’s Note: Papua, New Guinea supports a bill to implant HIV/AIDS patients with microchips so they can be tracked, monitored and punished for intentionally infecting others. Niniek Karmini of The Associated Press in Jakarta, Indonesia reports. –RA
Lawmakers in Indonesia’s remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips – part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.
Health workers and rights activists sharply criticized the plan Monday.
But legislator John Manangsang said by implanting small computer chips beneath the skin of “sexually aggressive” patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and ultimately punish those who deliberately infect others with up to six months in jail or a $5,000 fine.
The technical and practical details still need to be hammered out, he and others said, but the proposed legislation has received full backing from the provincial parliament and, if it gets a majority vote as expected, will be enacted next month.