The jury is still out on the causes and best treatment of autism spectrum disorder, but readers will find it difficult to...
Wakefield (Callous Disregard: Autisms and Vaccines: The Truth Behind a Tragedy, 2010), a British gastroenterologist who was stricken from the British medical register in 2010, defends himself against the charges brought against him.
In 1998, the author published a research study that claimed to have established a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination (MMR) and gastrointestinal disease and autism spectrum disorder. Accused of falsifying the data, he was subsequently barred from practicing medicine in the U.K. He begins this book with a spirited attack against the Sunday Times reporter, Brian Deer, who first exposed him in a series of articles. Wakefield brought an unsuccessful libel suit against the journalist, but he continues his attack on Deer, Times publisher Rupert Murdoch and the pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines. The ostensible occasion for this sequel to his 2011 book on the same subject is a dispute between Arizona parents and child-welfare authorities. The author writes in defense of the parents, who were accused of child abuse when they repeatedly sought medical services at Phoenix Children's Hospital for their five children. The parents claimed that their children were suffering from developmental disabilities and gastrointestinal problems that resulted from vaccinations they had received. Wakefield writes that the doctors who treated the children, “supported by hospital psychologists, bureaucrats, and litigators…believed that the children were healthy but abused,” and that the parents were seeking attention—the so-called “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.” The parents were accused of fabricating information and refusing to have their children properly vaccinated, and the children were temporarily removed by Arizona child-welfare authorities to foster care.
The jury is still out on the causes and best treatment of autism spectrum disorder, but readers will find it difficult to disentangle the author's efforts at self-rehabilitation from his contentions that this family was treated unjustly.Pub Date: June 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61608-614-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
A highly readable account of how solid research and personal testing of self-help techniques saved a couple's marriage after...
Self-help advice and personal reflections on avoiding spousal fights while raising children.
Before her daughter was born, bestselling author Dunn (Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask, 2009, etc.) enjoyed steady work and a happy marriage. However, once she became a mother, there never seemed to be enough time, sleep, and especially help from her husband. Little irritations became monumental obstacles between them, which led to major battles. Consequently, they turned to expensive couples' therapy to help them regain some peace in life. In a combination of memoir and advice that can be found in most couples' therapy self-help books, Dunn provides an inside look at her own vexing issues and the solutions she and her husband used to prevent them from appearing in divorce court. They struggled with age-old battles fought between men and women—e.g., frequency of sex, who does more housework, who should get up with the child in the middle of the night, why women need to have a clean house, why men need more alone time, and many more. What Dunn learned via therapy, talks with other parents, and research was that there is no perfect solution to the many dynamics that surface once couples become parents. But by using time-tested techniques, she and her husband learned to listen, show empathy, and adjust so that their former status as a happy couple could safely and peacefully morph into a happy family. Readers familiar with Dunn's honest and humorous writing will appreciate the behind-the-scenes look at her own semi-messy family life, and those who need guidance through the rough spots can glean advice while being entertained—all without spending lots of money on couples’ therapy.
A highly readable account of how solid research and personal testing of self-help techniques saved a couple's marriage after the birth of their child.Pub Date: March 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-26710-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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