Tag Archives: Utilitarian Bioethics

The Games by Ted Kosmatka

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Synopsis:
A geneticist prepares a computer-designed monster for competition in an Olympic gladiatorial competition between genetically engineered creatures, only the codes may have engineered the creature for more than just a game.

Review:
The Games is a fast-paced, scary thriller that harkened back to Michael Crichton’s down-and-dirty days. I have to say I regretted finishing it so late at night! Creepy monster + creepy computer + gladiatorial spectacle = quite the riveting read. Plus the prose was better-than-average and I actually enjoyed the author’s style. I don’t like plot for plot’s sake–though I do love plot in general–so the good writing is really what kept me going.

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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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Synopsis:
A professional “carer” recalls her idyllic school days, which mask a horror that she and her friends “know but don’t know.”

Review:
Never Let Me Go is one of my favorite all-time books, and this is the third time I’ve read it. Big life upheavals, like having a baby, always send me back to books I know I’ll enjoy, as a way to comfort myself through a major life transition. If you’ve read it, you’ll know that it’s a strange one to read while holding a brand new baby–and I hope that’s enough to tantalize anyone who hasn’t had a chance to read it.

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The Healers by Thomas Heric

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Synopsis:
Recruited by an elite medical society, an idealistic doctor discovers dark plans at odds with their stated mission to heal.

Review:
When I tell you that the secret of The Healers is Nazis, don’t worry, I’m not giving anything away–it’s right on the spine of the book. Set in the year 2021, the book posits a worst-case scenario where rising health costs have put medical care in the hands of only the wealthy. There are a lot of scenes where one character lectures another one about how things ended up this way. Plot-wise, this is just a run-of-the-mill thriller with adequate characters, a somewhat titillating premise, and some relevance to the world we live in today. I wasn’t really blown away but I did keep the pages turning for the most part.

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Unwind by Neal Shusterman

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Synopsis:
A boy marked for termination and organ harvesting escapes into a world where he has no legal right to live.

Review:
I heard about Unwind from the Queens Library, in an email newsletter talking up good new young adult books. I’m so glad that I did, because it’s a dystopian thrill ride in the same vein as Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies trilogy, only with the same intellectual depth and emotional heart that you find in Lois Lowry’s The Giver.

Here’s the deal with unwinding. Anyone under the age of 18 can be unwound by their legal guardian. It’s like a retroactive abortion, only every last piece of the unwind is harvested for reuse by another person. Organs, limbs, brain cells, even eyelashes–they all get doled out to the needy. Connor’s parents send him for unwinding because they have too many kids, but he’s lucky–and smart–enough to get away. He ends up on the run with Risa, a ward of the state whose unwinding comes when the home runs out of beds, and Lev, a “tithe” whose parents are unwinding him as a sacrifice to God.

I was so impressed with the way that Neal Shusterman engaged with big issues in Unwind. He didn’t shy away from tackling the abortion and bioethics debates head on in all their complexity. He didn’t dumb anything down, and he didn’t moralize or proselytize. The result is a book that offers a lot of food for thought in what also happens to be a page-turning thriller.

The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L’Engle

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Synopsis:
A summer job turns into a game of strategy with potentially deadly consequences for a young aspiring scientist hoping to learn more about the implications of the regenerative powers of starfish.

Review:
Of course I had to read a L’Engle as soon as humanly possible, and I wanted to read one I hadn’t read before. I was unaware that The Arm of the Starfish featured some of the characters from the Wrinkle in Time books, most notably, Polyhymnia O’Keefe from An Acceptable Time. I believe I never read it when I was a kid because of the awful cover. The one it has now isn’t much better, but the old one really didn’t make it look like a book I wanted to read. Continue reading →

Posted in American Literature | Tagged , , , , | 10 Replies

Emotional Reads

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I like to be moved by literature, which is why I don’t go crazy for metafiction or postmodernism or overly intellectual fiction (Don DeLillo, Thomas Pyncheon, etc.). Such was the book I read yesterday for work.

Otter asks,

What are the five books in your library (or memory) that stirred the greatest emotive reaction in you?

What I mean is, what five (or more) books most brought you close to tears, laughter, anger, whatever?

Continue reading →

The Ruins by Scott Smith

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Synopsis:
A jungle adventure turns into a nightmare when six tourists find themselves trapped in a clearing, unable to leave without being shot by Mayans, and finding a gory secret that brings new definition to the word flesh-eating.

Review:
I had to finish The Ruins during the day time, because I really did not want to face the heebie-jeebies again tonight. This book is scary, y’all–one of the scariest I’ve read in quite some time. It’s scary like I like, too, not just gore and demons but fear generated by good old-fashioned human drama. The kind that makes the characters’ sweat smell different because of the adrenalin. The kind that makes it impossible for you to avoid imagining this happening to you. Continue reading →

One Door Away from Heaven by Dean Koontz

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Synopsis:
Young Leilani has a deformed hand and a brace on her leg–and she’s just told her alcoholic ex-con neighbor that her differences are why her deranged doctor stepfather and whacked-out druggie mother are going to kill her unless she’s abducted by aliens when she turns 10.

Review:
I read this book because it was recommended by Wesley Smith, a leading voice against utilitarianism bioethics, which is the concept that death is the optimal choice for anyone living a less-than-perfect existence, physically speaking. Rather than “first do no harm,” doctors are succumbing to a growing trend in believing that many lives are simply not worth living, regardless of the will to live of the patient or patient’s family. These philosophers differentiate themselves from Nazi eugenicists by arguing that their standards for determining who lives and who does not are better–but the end result is the same. Death to the physically and mentally disabled, and to the terminally ill. Continue reading →