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Seizure
by Robin Cook Rating: • (Read only if your interest is strong) |
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Slippery Slope There are Robin Cook fans who will read
anything he writes. His latest novel, Seizure,
is perfect for those readers. For the rest of us, the story is too sloppy, plot
developments are too predictable, character motivations are too shallow, and
character development is too limited. Nonetheless, Cook presents a tale
wherein what’s rationalized as a minor compromise in ethics leads to the
slippery slope of crime and punishment. Here’s an excerpt (pp. 64-5) of what
to expect: "…
By doing this procedure, we will save CURE and HTSR, meaning millions of
people will ultimately benefit. It seems to me a minor compromise in ethics
is a small up-front price to pay for an enormous back-end payoff." "But we'll be doing exactly what Senator
Butler accused the biotech industry of doing in his opening statement this
morning: using ends to justify means. It would be unethical to experiment on
Senator Butler, plain and simple." "Yeah, well, perhaps to some degree, but who
are we putting at risk? It's the villain! He's the one asking for it. Worse
yet, he's conniving for it by extorting us with information he got by somehow
coercing the FBI to do an illegal investigation." "That all may be true, but two wrongs don't
make a right, and it doesn't absolve us of our complicity." "I think it would. We'll make Butler sign a
release, and we'll put everything in the release, including the fact that we
are fully aware that doing the procedure would be considered unethical by any
research advisory board in this country, because it's being done without an
appropriately approved protocol. The release will state unequivocally that it
was Butler's idea to do the procedure and to do the procedure outside of the
country. It will also state that he used extortion to get us to
participate." "Do you think he'd sign such a release?" "We won't give him any choice. Either he signs
it or he doesn't get the benefit of HTSR. I'm comfortable with the idea that
we'll be doing the procedure in the Bahamas, so we won't be violating any PDA
rules, and we'll have a rock-solid release in case we need it. The onus will
be squarely on Butler's shoulders." "Let me think about it for a few minutes." "Take your time, but I really think the moral
weight favors our doing it. It would be different if we were forcing him in
any way, shape, or form. But we're not. It's the other way around." "But
it could be argued that he's uninformed. He's a politician, not a doctor. He
doesn't truly know the risks. He could die." "He's not going to die," Daniel said
emphatically. "We'll err on the conservative side, meaning the
worse-case scenario is that we won't give him enough cells to get his
dopamine concentration high enough to get rid of all his symptoms. If that happens,
he'll be begging us to do it again, which will be easy, since we'll maintain
the treating cells in culture." "Let me mull it over." "Sure," Daniel said. They rode the rest of the way in silence. It wasn't
until they were going up in the hotel elevator that Stephanie spoke up:
"Do you honestly think we would be able to find an appropriate place to
do the procedure?" "Butler spent a good deal of effort on all
this," Daniel said. "He wasn't leaving anything to chance. Frankly,
I'd be shocked if he didn't have the clinic he mentioned investigated for
appropriateness at the same time he had me investigated." "I suppose that's possible. Actually, I
remember reading about the Wingate Clinic about a year ago. It was a popular,
unaffiliated infertility clinic out in Bookford, Massachusetts, before it
moved under pressure to the Bahamas. It was quite a scandal." "I remember it too. It was run by a couple of
maverick infertility guys. Their research department was doing unethical
reproductive cloning experiments." "Unconscionable is a better description, like
trying to get human fetuses to gestate in pigs. I remember they were also
implicated in the disappearance of a couple of Harvard coed egg donors. The
principals had to flee the country and barely managed to avoid extradition
back to the States. All in all, it sounds like the absolute opposite of the
kind of place and people we should get involved with." "We wouldn't be getting involved with them.
We'd do the procedure, wash our hands, and leave." Cook has always done plot better than
dialogue. In Seizure,
dialogue remains strained, and plot remains sketchy. If you enjoyed the excerpt,
jump into the rest of Seizure.
If not, take my word for it, the rest of the book is just as bad as this
excerpt, so take a pass. Steve Hopkins, August 22, 2003 |
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ã 2003 Hopkins and Company, LLC The
recommendation rating for this book appeared in the September
2003 issue of Executive
Times URL
for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Seizure.htm For
Reprint Permission, Contact: Hopkins
& Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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