I’ve always liked non-fiction. When I’m in a bookstore, I spend my time in the science section. I do however like Michael Crichton’s books. I guess because they read almost like non-fiction. In fact, sometimes it is hard to figure out what is real, and what is made-up. And sometimes, what he has made-up is so close to reality that it does become real within a few years of publication. My first exposure came many years ago when, as a student, I had the opportunity to read his Andromeda Stain. At the time I was studying molecular biology and microbial genetics. I couldn’t believe how cool this book was, and how realistic it seemed to be.

Because of some of the adult content, I cannot recommend this book for schools or students; I do highly recommend the book for adults and teachers. I learned my lesson when I spoke of the movie “The Score”…….

…which talked about Huntington disease. I highly recommended the movie as a centre piece for classroom discussion. It turned out some of the teachers felt I put them into a difficult position as the movie brought up the dilemma of abortion. Therefore, I can’t recommend this book for a school setting. I will say this book by Michael Crichton brings up many possible situations which would make for excellent classroom discussion with regard to the issues facing the science of genomics.

One perfect case from the book has an adult child of a car accident victim requesting genetic testing on her deceased father. Well, the test determines that she is in fact not the daughter. The genetic test did reveal information which led to the brother/son having his health insurance revoked. The rest of the family now sues the hospital because the data could only be released to a relative, and this woman was not actually related.

Many other parallel story lines are followed in the book, and I wondered how Crichton was going to connect them all together. You will too as he takes you through the ethical, moral and legal consequences of genomic manipulation. At the end of the book, the author’s note describes several issues which I think have great potential for classroom discussion. Namely; patenting genes, use of human tissue (in research), privacy laws, genetic testing, research bans and university research funding and ownership of results (in the U.S. called the Bayh-Dole Act).