Kanar's debut novel is an imaginative page-turner about a near-future society dominated by big business and big medicine. The book's title refers to the Justification Factor, the moral basis for organ allocation established by the International Organ Replacement Corp. (IORC), a powerful, multibillion-dollar industry that produces transplantable organs for patients with high enough J Factors. Societies around the world use the J Factor to control the actions of their citizens. In the U.S., a personal-records crystal implanted in every resident's earlobe stores vital information that can be quickly accessed by the government-administered Universal Medical Hospital and Pharmaceutical Care System. Many people have died as a result of J Factor policies, but IORC is so powerful that most world governments--and the U.S. president, who has an IORC heart--believe the organization can do no wrong. When Dr. David West, an ambitious young heart surgeon from Orlando, Fla., accidentally violates IORC polices and a man dies as a result, he and attorney Janette Compton set out to expose IORC's corrupt practices to the world. Packed with well-rounded characters, fast-paced turns, complex and bizarre medical practices, several subplots and tense courtroom scenes, this novel marks Kanar as a thriller writer to watch. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
The business of medicine has taken a deadly turn....
What is your J Factor?
In the not so distant future, big business and big medicine have a new definition of managed care. It's called the Justification Factor system and it decides who lives and who dies. It is the ultimate tally of your every action. When the good become ill, they get the best treatment that medicine has to offer. When the bad become ill, they're left to die.
Dr. David West, an idealistic young surgeon, believes in the Hippocratic oath but finds his optimism in conflict with the new medical regime dominated by the International Organ Replacement Corporation, a company whose "products" are transplantable organs and whose "customers" receive those organs only if their J Factor is high enough--a company so powerful that world governments bend to its wishes.
When Dr. West accidentally violates the policies of the IORC, he and Janette Compton, a passionate young attorney, discover just how far the IORC will go to protect its secrets--and its profits. Stephen Kanar shows you the future of medicine in this imaginative, heart-pounding thriller. And in this future, the cure can kill you. The J Factor. Is it worth keeping you alive?
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