Reviews

Life Histories of Genetic Disease by Andrew J. Hogan

lizzybethrae's review

3.0

Well written and interesting but confusing in scope. I believe it is attempting to be a history of cytogenetics, or at least, that's what it comes closest too. Prevention/treatment in the eye of this book is nothing more than abortion, which I don't think would sit well with anyone in the field of pediatric genetics. It was published a year before the first FDA approved gene therapy so it is confusing to me that it discusses preventative abortions at length without addressing the scientific progress made towards 1) less paternalistic practice through an entire field called genetic counseling and 2) scientific progress towards treatments/surveillance based on better understanding of natural history. The intended audience is also unclear as some terms are defined as though a lay person were reading and yet other terms go undescribed though I feel they would be foreign to anybody outside the field.

As someone in the field, I did enjoy the book for what it chose to address.