The year is 2022, and bioethics has come full circle. Learn how guerilla bioethicist, Maria Vasquez, infiltrates the medical tourist transplantation operation of Dr. Wallace Jefferson and what happens when she discovers that Jefferson's illegal operating room in former US base Guantanamo Bay has become a new base of operations for Dr. Zoltan Zaros' stateside fertility clinic Pregnancy Viability Systems, Inc.
Dr. Perlman, who teaches public health ethics, law, and policy at USciences and clinical ethics University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, examines issues of research and technology from these two academic perspectives in the fast-paced, innovative format of a medical thriller.
As Dr. Perlman describes: "My recipe for a creepy futuristic sci-fi novel: Take one part Robin Cook's and Michael Crichton's Coma, mix in one part Jessica Alba in Dark Angel. Stir in an organ transplant shortage, a devious surgeon, a nefarious body snatcher, and families of vegetative patients who would donate a kidney in exchange for perpetual life support. Whisk in the ability to choose your own adventure throughout the book and what do you get? A perfect 'organ farm.'"
The innovative part is that the reader gets to make the ethical choices throughout the novel, so there are multiple alternative endings to the book. Plus, Dr. Perlman is hoping to use social media to generate book club discussions about the issues presented in the novel through a crowdsourcing contest. Anyone with a Kindle or a device capable of using the Kindle App (PC, Mac, iOS, Android, etc.) can get the eBook.