Do Cyborgs Need Their Own Bill of Rights?
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On Sunday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation of Texas held the first ever Cyborg Pride Parade. Although it only had a handful of attendees, the activists brought to light many of the questions that some say society will need to answer urgently decades from now.
Among them: Do we need a new bill of rights specifically for "cyborgs?"
Cyborgs are individuals who choose to alter their body by combining it with technology.
"As the electronic frontier moves into our bodies, it is important that we cyber-libertarians march as allies alongside the cyborgs among us and the cyborgs we will all someday become," said the activists. "What do we want? Cyborg rights! When do we want them? Now!"
The event was followed by the EFF-Austin annual cyberpunk party, where people flaunted their electronic modifications and costumes.
Below is the current "Cyborg Bill of Rights" composed by Rich MacKinnon, former board member of the ACLU of Texas. What do you think? Comment your ideas.
THE CYBORG BILL OF RIGHTS:
FREEDOM FROM DISASSEMBLY
A person shall enjoy the sanctity of bodily integrity and be free from unnecessary search, seizure, suspension or interruption of function, detachment, dismantling, or disassembly without due process.
FREEDOM OF MORPHOLOGY
A person shall be free to express themselves through temporary or permanent adaptions, alterations, modifications, or augmentations to the shape or form of their bodies. Similarly, a person shall be free from coerced or otherwise involuntary morphological changes.
RIGHT TO ORGANIC NATURALIZATION
A person shall be free from exploitive or injurious 3rd party ownerships of vital and supporting bodily systems. A person is entitled to the reasonable accrual of ownership interest in 3rd party properties affixed, attached, embedded, implanted, injected, infused, or otherwise permanently integrated with a person's body for a long-term purpose.
RIGHT TO BODILY SOVEREIGNTY
A person is entitled to dominion over intelligences and agents, and their activities, whether they are acting as permanent residents, visitors, registered aliens, trespassers, insurgents, or invaders within the person's body and its domain.
EQUALITY FOR MUTANTS
A legally recognized mutant shall enjoy all the rights, benefits, and responsibilities extended to natural persons.