I have been thinking a lot about ideas brought up in this book since I started reading it. It was truly like entering an entirely different world, even within my own time and country.
I really didn't know anything about the history of some of the aspects of the story before reading this book, like informed consent and institutional review boards; I have prepared applications for IRB approval, had research subjects sign consent forms, and signed them myself, but I had never thought of the possibilities for emotional distress that this research could cause people who don't have a clear understanding of the science involved--and isn't that all of us at one time or another?
So now I wonder a bit about the tiny dots of my newborns' blood on the metabolic screening cards that the state keeps forever.
I read this book a while ago and I know exactly what you are talking about! I am ashamed at all the time I spent working in a lab using cells and never even really thinking about where they came from. It just kind of opened up a whole new world of things to think about.
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