Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene [Hardcover]

Masha Gessen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0151013624 | ISBN-13: 978-0151013623 | Publication Date: April 1, 2008 | Edition: 1

In 2004 genetic testing revealed that Masha Gessen had a mutation that predisposed her to ovarian and breast cancer. The discovery initiated Gessen into a club of sorts: the small (but exponentially expanding) group of people in possession of a new and different way of knowing themselves through what is inscribed in the strands of their DNA. As she wrestled with a wrenching personal decision—what to do with such knowledge—Gessen explored the landscape of this brave new world, speaking with others like her and with experts including medical researchers, historians, and religious thinkers.

Blood Matters is a much-needed field guide to this unfamiliar and unsettling territory. It explores the way genetic information is shaping the decisions we make, not only about our physical and emotional health but about whom we marry, the children we bear, even the personality traits we long to have. And it helps us come to terms with the radical transformation that genetic information is engineering in our most basic sense of who we are and what we might become.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This energetic but unfocused account awkwardly merges several strands: the author's experience with the threat of breast cancer, discussions of genetic inheritance in Jewish families and a look at how the ability to test for genetic predispositions to various diseases is changing lives. With a family history of breast cancer, journalist Gessen (Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia After Communism) was not surprised to learn she had inherited a deleterious mutation in the BRCA1 gene, one of two genes known to be linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The BRCA1 mutation was first discovered in Jewish women, a compact population with a higher-than-average breast cancer rate. Gessen describes her narrow options, with nondirective counseling steering her toward prophylactic removal of her breasts and ovaries. Then she jumps the track to talk about Dr. Henry Lynch, who, in 1966, first suggested that predisposition to cancer might be hereditary. Gessen also covers Huntington's disease, maple syrup disease among Old Order Mennonites, eugenics and how a genetic testing program is affecting marital choices for some Orthodox Jews. Gessen covers a fair amount of ground, but in a haphazard fashion. The book's strongest parts are on genetics and heredity in the Jewish community. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Life in the age of the human genome, with its promise of custom medicines and forewarnings of hereditary diseases, may appear to be on the road to utopia. But after Gessen learned that a gene mutation predisposed her to breast and ovarian cancer, she found that road slippery, that utopia farther away than it had seemed. Thirty-seven, with an adopted six-year-old son and a biological two-year-old daughter, she faced decisions about elective double radical mastectomy plus surgical removal of her ovaries. Before deciding, she did what any respectable journalist would do: researched the subject to learn all the options and their consequences and, she hoped, to find somebody who would make her decision easier—that is, decide for her. On the one hand, she succeeded by penning this report on the field of genetics, its benefits and pitfalls. On the other, she ended up having to make her own decision. She gives us an informative read, though she found no easy way. --Donna Chavez

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151013624
• ISBN-13: 978-0151013623
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,260,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perceptive and well written, June 30, 2008

By 

Fiona Place "Fiona Place" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene (Hardcover)

This book is one of the few books on genetic screening that gives you a feel for the topic. It does this through personal journey as well as investigative journalism blending the two so as to explore the implications and inevitable consequences of genetic screening. It covers cancer, huntingtons and other rare hereditary conditions and illuminates the burdens and reliefs the current knowledges can provide. It is easy to read, compelling and wise. My only criticism would be the chapter on prenatal screening - this was not as well thought through and lacked the wisdom of the rest of the book. All in all it is a considerable achievement and I would highly recommend it to the general reader as well as those with a particular interest in medicine.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How genetic information is reshaping the decision-making process, June 20, 2008

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene (Hardcover)

BLOOD MATTERS: FROM INHERITED ILLNESS TO DESIGNER BABIES, HOW THE WORLD AND I FOUND OURSELVES IN THE FUTURE OF THE GENE tells of genetics using the author's foundation of experience as the starting point. In 2004 she was told she had a mutation that predisposed her to ovarian and breast cancer: the problem proved what to do with this knowledge. BLOOD MATTERS explores how genetic information is reshaping the decision-making process - and how these new decisions are reshaping knowledge of self. Any general interest lending library strong in health references will find this an excellent lend - as well as college-level collections strong in genetic health books.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a sharp mind focused on a difficult problem, June 10, 2008

By 

James Mckenna "oldarcadia" (cincinnati) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene (Hardcover)

I took to Masha Gessen's writing immediately. Smart and inquisitive, she asks interesting questions and she displays both genuineness and insight over the course of her journey to make and justify her decision to undergo prophylactic mastectomies. She reveals moments when her professional facade breaks down and she finds herself reduced to a scared woman hoping the experts she consults can give her the wisdom she seeks. All through her story, however, she maintains an honesty and human sense of connection that makes this book an engaging read. Her search through the medical system, through economics (as the science of decision-making), through psychology and aesthetics, and through applied genetics makes fascinating reading. Anyone interested in locating the right questions to ask about genetic science and in considering the opinions of some of today's leading-edge thinkers and practitioners in this area will enjoy this book.