Barbie, There's no need to wait for this new legislation. You can go
out *right now* and buy a medical bracelet for him to wear. You can
print your own paper card at home and laminate it for $1 to carry in his
wallet right next to his drivers license.

Also, Daniel I believe you have misrepresented the position of the civil
liberties groups:

Lady said: [voluntary] - I imagine that the ACLU and other civil
liberties organizations take exception only to forcing such a thing on
someone.

And Daniel responded: No lady, they have come right out and stated that
it is a violation (in their opinion) of civil liberties and presonal
freedom

Exactly where has any civil liberties group specifically opposed the
*option* of opting into a plan to provide medical data?? The 'it' that
they are opposed to is the 'plan as a whole', because they disagree with
-parts- of the plan. Thats how the law works - they have to block the
entire bill in order to force the specifics to be revised.

I SERIOUS DOUBT they are opposed to any voluntary plan for people to
choose to provide medical data for their own protection.

Mass, you are absolutely correct. That is exactly what I was referring
to in my previous post. Just because you agree with one small part of a
bill, referendum or legilature - PLEASE, PLEASE, take the time to review
the entire document.

That is only part of the issue, though a huge part. The other part is
this. So it's deemed valuable to have known allergies on your license,
and maybe even your blood type - next the medical staff will want to
know HIV status, and the Jehovah Witnesses will want a blood transfusion
denial space, and of course we already have the option which may
henceforth become required, to have your donor prefrence, and then there
are those who would want it known that they take regular medication such
as anti-rejection meds for transplant patients, ......... AND the next
thing you know we'll be asked to approve a bill that says, we ALL need
to have an under the skin implant of our complete medical history. NO
NO STOP IT - we can not allow our government to have these contols on
any level.

AND AS FOR CHILDREN - I am vehemently opposed to ANY government that
dictates how families should raise their children. I think they have
much too much control in that area already. Yes, children have rights,
and 99 per cent of those rights should be dictated by the families of
those children, not by the government. IF ANYONE wants the government
involved, then I say, make every woman who becomes pregnant take a test
to see if they are fit. If so, leave them alone, if not - well I guess
this get's into a topic of another kind.

I say no to forced health info on public documents.

I agree oine hundred percent that if there is something tied into the
proposal that should not be allowed (which happens all too damn often)
then it has to be said no to. However, when I said they have said no to
ALL ideas of medical achnowledgemtn rd, it is becasue they said almost
exactly what you just said which is no to putting ANY medical info on
licenses. And I am sorry but I have to disagree on that. No, I do not
htink that we should have to put sometingon for every group (like you
said about one group with blood transfusions). However, if it is
soemthing that could literlly prevent you from being killed by accident
(like an allergy to a drug, or hte fact that you are taking anti
rejection medications for a transplant) then by all means it SHOULD be
required to be encoded on your license. I am not talking about encoding
your entire medical history. Just what would be needed in a life or
death emergency. And as far as children go, we as parents do not under
any circumstances have the right to deny them ANYTHING that could
prevent them from surviving an accident or whatever. It is our
responsibility to raise them in a way that they will as an adult choose
to protect themselves. This is just my opinion, but there it is.

lol! yeah I think they should do something like that just think before
you date someone you can also know their information and past history
before hooking up with them

lol nice try jp, but no. It would only be acessible by those authorized
to do so. All encoded on that little magnetic strip on yur id card.

Daniel - you say they said no, bt were they saying no to mandatory
medical info or voluntary medical info. That is the key question,
which is why I quoted you and lady A.

Also, you seem tohave a lot of (naive?) confidence in the security of
this system when you casually dismiss jps idea.

I guarantee criminals will crack this using only a $20 strip reader and
a laptop. You may want emergency response people to know your medical
history, I don't want the theif who steals me wallet to know where I
live and my medical condition.

Why should you force me to do as you do? Let me keep my medical info
private, and buy yourself a medical bracelet or a separate info card.

Still more here to consider,
First of all, a credit card cannot alway be run through a reader. Any
scratch, crack, bend or or magnetic contact could make it null.
Therefore info of this nature on a strip like that might not work.
Also, I could not get my kid to hold onto a key for the house. He lost
7 of them, including the ones I left with neighbors for him. What makes
you think a kid will carry a card with this info for any lenght of time
and have it still be readable. And loosing a loan key somewhere in the
street with no identity is one thing, losing a card such at this has
entirely TOO much info on it. It would not benefit children.
Options, high security data base? Yea right, does security breach by
17 year olds scare you - it does me, especially when they can enter the
best of our governments security.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION would be TOTALLY optional and I can tell you,
unless you felt strongly that your child was safer with it than not,
then not many would take advantage and that would be as stated earlier;
the under the skin chip. But only if optional, and only if the
government allows some kind of assistance to families who could not
affort to pay out of pocket for it but still wish to take advantage of
it.
Personally, I think adding contact information in your cell phone
under the name ICE is the best thing we have right now. Even Teens
carry cell phones these days. Make sure those contact people will
answer their phone or messages pretty promptly and make sure who you put
in there has a list you have provided of names phone number and
immediate medical information.
This was a good topic, makes one think!