
From Jonathan Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Beak of the Finch, comes His Brother's Keeper -- the story of a young entrepreneur who gambles on the risky science of gene therapy to try to save his brother's life.Stephen Heywood was twenty-nine years old when he learned that he was dying of ALS -- Lou Gehrig's disease. Almost overnight his older brother, Jamie, turned himself into a genetic engineer in a quixotic race to cure the incurable. His Brother's Keeper is a powerful account of their story, as they travel together to the edge of medicine.The book brings home for all of us the hopes and fears of the new biology. In this dramatic and suspenseful narrative, Jonathan Weiner gives us a remarkable portrait of science and medicine today. We learn about gene therapy, stem cells, brain vaccines, and other novel treatments for such nerve-death diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's -- diseases that afflict millions, and touch the lives of many more.It turns out that the author has a personal stake in the story as well. When he met the Heywood brothers, his own mother was dying of a rare nerve-death disease. The Heywoods' gene therapist offered to try to save her, too."The Heywoods' story taught me many things about the nature of healing in the new millennium," Weiner writes. "They also taught me about what has not changed since the time of the ancients and may never change as long as there are human beings -- about what Lucretius calls ‘the ever-living wound of love.'"The Heywoods mean the whole story to me now: an allegory from the edge of medicine. A story to make us ask ourselves questions that we have to ask but do not want to ask. How much of life can we engineer? How much is permitted us?"What would you do to save your brother's life?"
This book investigates the ethical and scientific boundaries of modern medicine through the lens of a desperate attempt to cure ALS. Jonathan Weiner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, utilizes his investigative background to document the real-life efforts of Jamie Heywood to save his brother Stephen from a terminal diagnosis. The narrative serves as a framework for examining the rapid, often precarious, advancements in gene therapy and stem cell research while reflecting on the human cost of medical innovation.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Critics and readers frequently note the balance between technical medical reporting and the intimate, human-centric narrative of the Heywood family. Experts often cite this work as a significant contribution to the public understanding of the ethical dilemmas inherent in experimental biotechnology.
Page Count:
356
Publication Date:
2004-03-16
Publisher:
Ecco
ISBN-10:
006001007X
ISBN-13:
9780060010072
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!