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This COMPUTERWEEKLY NEWS story (May 29, 1997) reports on a warning from a lawyer in England. She says that managers of the National Health System (NHS) could be held liable for manslaughter if a device with a chip inside that is not 2000-compliant should fail and cause anyone's death. Such machines include life support machines, scanners, etc.
"There is no way," she said, "that they could say that they hadn't heard about the year 2000 issue."
This indicates how widespread the problem is. Whole systems are at risk. They cannot be fixed merely by software code revisions.
England's SUNDAY BUSINESS (May 25, 1997) reported: "Anybody who still does not believe the millennium bug exists should take a trip to University College hospital in central London. Large luminous green stickers warning employees of year 2000 faults within hospital equipment can be spotted plastered all over a disturbingly prominent number of devices."
All such noncompliant devices will become scrap in 2000. To repair them now is expensive. Not to repair them is to make them worthless -- in fact, liabilities -- after 1999.
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