Solomon's Knife [Library Binding]

Victor Koman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1989

Dr. Evelyn Fletcher is a surgeon caught in a maelstrom of controversy. She has secretly devised a surgical procedure that could alter the lives of millions. When the beautiful and successful Valerie Dalton walks into Fletcher's office for a routine abortion, the doctor realizes that she has found the perfect experimental subject.

In another room of the same clinic wait Karen Chandler and her husband, who have sought pregnancy for years with no success. They greet Fletcher's offer of a radically new embryo-implant procedure as a miracle. Karen, with no hesitation, agrees to undergo the questionable surgery.

When little Renata is born and then falls deathly ill, only one person can save her life. A woman who does not even know her daughter exists. Under a barrage of media scrutiny, Valerie Dalton must face the courts with her lover in an unprecedented custody battle. Ultimately, she plumbs the depths of her shattered soul to find an answer to the conflict that rages within her and all society.

Solomon's Knife is a masterful and fiery mixture of medical thriller and courtroom drama that fuses every facet of the most violently debated issue of our age. The reality it foreshadows is only years -- perhaps months -- away.

Prometheus Award Winner!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An aborted fetus is "transopted," or plunked, into an infertile woman and brought to term in this tendentious morality yarn. When Valerie Dalton opts for abortion, physician-with-a-mission Evelyn Fletcher lies about her intentions for the fetus. Alas, baby Renata is born with immune system problems due to prescribed hormone treatments, and only a bone-marrow transplant can save her. Of course, only marrow from the natural mother will do, so the "transoption" is inveiled to public scrutiny, much to the delight of the press, pro-lifers and pro-choicers. A trial ensues, and Fletcher argues that "transoption" would neatly put to rest all the outrage surrounding abortion. Perhaps it would, and if so, we will all be spared a reprise of this two-dimensional story--not to mention its gory (and often gratuitous) details of clinical procedures.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Unmarried and pregnant, Valerie Dalton decides to have an abortion, only to find out seven months later that, because of a doctor's revolutionary new procedure, her unwanted embryo was secretly implanted in the womb of Karen, a woman who was unable to conceive. This starts a custody battle comparable to the Baby M case: Valerie now wants back the baby she relinquished as a fetus; Karen wants the baby she gave birth to. Legal and ethical questions are raised about the medical procedure as well as the question, "Whose baby is it?" The novel describes the anguish that the litigants endure while the courts decide the fate of baby Renata. Aptly named after the biblical story of King Solomon, this novel will be a welcome addition to public libraries in the light of all the ethical questions it addresses.
- Jeannette Rice Erbst, Marlboro Psychiatric Hosp. Lib., N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 278 pages
• Publisher: Franklin Watts (April 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531151085
• ISBN-13: 978-0531151082
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,689,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Technology Changes Everything!, February 15, 2010

By 

John C. Legg (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Solomon's Knife (Hardcover)

Excellent read. I don't want to give away any of the plot and in so doing diminish the reader's enjoyment of this thought provoking novel. (I must confess, however, I did read the dj blurbs, reviews, etc. before hand and it did take away some of the novel's surprise, but if I hadn't read those things, I probably wouldn't have ever read the novel, i.e., sort of a catch twenty-two.) Solomon's Knife is quote a "science fiction" novel, but since it takes place in the present or near present, it doesn't seem to be SF at all, i.e., it's easy to read and understand, and it has understandable character names, locations, etc., i.e., it is for all appearances a main-stream novel (for readers who may be put-off/frightened by SF). The novel is about how the development of a new technology can remove old dependencies, create new possibilities, and lead to the establishment of new basic human rights and freedoms. But social change doesn't come easy, i.e., it shakes us up, makes us want to kick the butts of those we believe to be transgressors, and seems to take forever to be accepted and permissible. The only crime here is that no one before me reviewed this book. How can this be?