cover image All God's Mistakes: Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital

All God's Mistakes: Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital

Charles L. Bosk. University of Chicago Press, $38 (222pp) ISBN 978-0-226-06681-3

According to University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Bosk ( Forgive and Remember ), the kind of applied genetic science which he observed during three years as a ``guest'' witness of a team of genetic counselors in an unidentified children's hospital ``promises to revolutionize medicine.'' While the author's focus is the ethnological nature of the project, his convincing report also discusses technical aspects of prenatal diagnosis and detection of such genetic diseases as spina bifida, sickle-cell anemia and hemophilia, entailing often difficult decisions that confront parents of neonatal victims. Bosk predicts that the humble ``expert neutrality'' status of counselors will be upgraded and expanded to meet the needs created by the rapid pace of change in applied human genetics and to cope with increasingly aggressive, autonomous patients and parents. (Sept.)