Roman Rolland once said, "It's the artist's job to create sunshine when there isn't any."
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I'm a student, a wolverine (grrr), an artist, a reader, a fiancee, a daughter and these are my thoughts...

February 21, 2011

Book Review: The Match ("Savior Siblings" and One Family's Battle to Heal Their Daughter)

Another book from LibraryThing!  I finished reading The Match and found myself wanting to learn the rest of the story, how Katie is growing up.  This book is about amazing, new fertility options that can help people who either have a genetic disorder that runs in their family or help out a family with an already sick child.  Selecting fertilized eggs for healthy genes or certain genes that match a sibling is a complicated new field of medicine and ethics and this book takes the academic arguments surrounding it and puts names and faces on the controversy.  In the book, you meet the Trebing family, whose daughter Katie is suffering from the terminal condition of Blackfan Anemia.  Her parents eventually decided to have another child whose genetic makeup with be a perfect match for Katie's, and therefore able to donate cord blood or bone marrow to help heal Katie.  This story follows their decision making process, the controversy they encounter and the long months of Katie's healing through the help of her brother, Christopher.  Sprinkled in amongst the story is the technical knowledge regarding the procedures that brought Christopher into the world and the battle to save Katie's life.  This is a well-written book that never gets too bogged down in the technical and yet gives enough information to help keep everything in perspective.  Oh, and it will probably make you cry. 

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