Do you fear that one day you may be required to receive a microchip implant? Perhaps you’re worried that this may violate your privacy by allowing your movements or behavior to be tracked. Or, perhaps you’re just worried that microchips are the “mark of the beast” from the Bible’s Book of Revelation. No, seriously:
Presumably most of the 88 legislators who voted in favor of the bill did so because of privacy concerns (just nine voted nay, and there was one abstention). Virginia also does not stand alone in taking a dim view of forced microchip implants — several states such as Wisconsin and Georgia have also approved similar bans.
But the bill also took on religious overtones due a belief shared by some fundamentalist Christians that microchips may represent the marks described in the Book of Revelation. It’s a view supported by Mark Cole, the Virginia delegate who sponsored the bill.
Despite what is, in my opinion, a dubious rationale for introducing this bill, any law that protects the civil rights of individuals is a good one. All’s well that ends well, no?