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A review by melaniesreads
Off Target by Eve Smith
5.0
In The Waiting Rooms Eve Smith tackled drug resistance, this time round it’s genetics that get the wonderfully fictional but all too realistic Smith spin. Her books always give me pause for thought and I come away with my own moral perspective on them. Playing God has definitely been at the heart of both books and while science has come on leaps and bounds it is not always without consequence.
Altering genes to prevent illnesses sounds like a pro but are the cons worth it? The scope this book gives is immense, it is a thinking reader’s thriller. Throwing everything at your brain including the kitchen sink, religion plays a part, science, medicine, ethics and at the heart of it all is Susan a woman desperate to be a mother at all cost. After trying for years the natural way when everyone else she knows has gone down the IVF route, they now have either a rapidly swelling bump or a bundle of joy while all she has is tears every month.
So when a one night stand gives her what she longs for and with her husband kept unaware she will have to go to great lengths to cover up what she has done. This is definitely a book of two parts with the narrative switching from Susan to her daughter years later. Showing the true reality of her decisions and a very different perspective that divided my loyalty.
I am normally very opinionated and find it easy to choose a moral side. This book however put me in a real moral quandary. As I have a progressive and life limiting disease if the science had been available to my mum would I have been flagged and aborted in the so called strive for perfection and designer babies? If I had the choice to see if my children would develop my rare disease would I have taken it? The truth is, to me perfection is overrated and I like the Japanese way of looking at imperfection, mend the cracks with gold to make them more beautiful. My disability has taken things from me but it has also given me so much, compassion (which I was probably lacking before) a wicked sense of humour and an indefeasible spirit.
I may not be perfect but does that make me any less?
Altering genes to prevent illnesses sounds like a pro but are the cons worth it? The scope this book gives is immense, it is a thinking reader’s thriller. Throwing everything at your brain including the kitchen sink, religion plays a part, science, medicine, ethics and at the heart of it all is Susan a woman desperate to be a mother at all cost. After trying for years the natural way when everyone else she knows has gone down the IVF route, they now have either a rapidly swelling bump or a bundle of joy while all she has is tears every month.
So when a one night stand gives her what she longs for and with her husband kept unaware she will have to go to great lengths to cover up what she has done. This is definitely a book of two parts with the narrative switching from Susan to her daughter years later. Showing the true reality of her decisions and a very different perspective that divided my loyalty.
I am normally very opinionated and find it easy to choose a moral side. This book however put me in a real moral quandary. As I have a progressive and life limiting disease if the science had been available to my mum would I have been flagged and aborted in the so called strive for perfection and designer babies? If I had the choice to see if my children would develop my rare disease would I have taken it? The truth is, to me perfection is overrated and I like the Japanese way of looking at imperfection, mend the cracks with gold to make them more beautiful. My disability has taken things from me but it has also given me so much, compassion (which I was probably lacking before) a wicked sense of humour and an indefeasible spirit.
I may not be perfect but does that make me any less?