I got this Robin Cooks shock as a birthday gift for my 60th b.day from my son and daughter in law. I really enjoyed reading. I am not very good at writing reviews. But the tempo and the gripping style of narration by the author, made me try writing this review.
Two middle class women were tempted to donate their ova for the large sum to help more comfortable living was ok. Later they were shocked to know that the option of general anesthesia by one lady was misused to rob her one whole ovary & not the one or two ova which don?t make much difference for their future fertility.
The other woman stubbornly wanted to have local anesthesia even after the doctor scared her that it may be very painful even unbearable, that helped her save her ovaries. The dr lies that he retrieved 1 egg from one lady and 7-8 from the other lady.
After 1 yr when the two grew inquisitive to see the babies born of their eggs, they didn?t get the desired response from the hospital that it was not done for various reasons. then the two women go thro a Herculean effort or bhageeratha prayatna to get in to the hospital as employees and how they reach the files and get the addresses of kids born from eggs from one lady, was gripping! .
When they after a long search, meet the children, they were in for shock to see the see them kept in such unhygienic slums!! The couple spent all money they had for getting the kid which ended them in slums. The urge to have a kid of their own is so compulsive.
The information that no egg was retrievable from the lady who took local anesthesia was another shock to both women. The kids had the same appearance meaning the source of sperm was same, from none other than the dr managing the lab was one more shock!
How one woman’s death during the procedure ( no fault of drs, neither the surgeon nor anesthetist) was managed, kidnapping her friend who was her attendant, and nothing was heard of the two women from that day , so shocking! How medical fraternity can do such things after taking oath to use the knowledge only for the good of humanity!
The human sperms were passed off for pig?s sperms to keep the unethical procedures, secret, a shocking lie! And pigs cloning how they do the processing of the cells in labs , how the labor was conducted on pig and dr gets disappointed to get a dead fetus reputedly, were was highly technical and giving light shock to the reader that such things r possible. Assisted reproductive technique is only scientific fiction, not mastered totally yet!!
Srushti , a god?s job is being taken over by research scientists, but is still in initial stages, only 30% success in A.R.T.art.only death is left to be conquered by man! Better health and longevity in infants and aged attained.
The nicaraguan women’s poverty, and innocence and high fertility rate was misused by the institution on the pretext of giving them employment was even more shocking!
In the end how the women ran when chased and boldly came back to the same hospital to reveal the unethical procedures going on to the top boss and to come to know he was also involved in what was going on, is the ultimate shock! Even to the reader.