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Amazon.com Review
"Medical research." When most of us hear those words, our imagination conjures up bored graduates with white jackets in a sterile porcelain laboratory, knowing no more about their subjects than ID number and blood type. This depersonalization of modern science is a myth, of course, but a powerful one that guides the way science is perceived and performed. This myth neglects or marginalizes the work of those men and women who take the human aspects of their research so seriously that they feel compelled to experiment on themselves.
Who Goes First? tells their stories and thus gives us a view of medical research that diverges from the alienation of the nameless number heads.
Lawrence K. Altman has pursued research on the subject of medical self-experimentation since his days as a medical student, and this personal interest shines throughout the book. His writing is smart and enthusiastic, shedding light on a little-discussed aspect of research that raises important questions of ethics and scientific validity. Can a researcher be as objective about his or her own reactions to a drug as to a stranger's reactions? Should a scientist subject others to risks that he or she wouldn't take personally? What, if anything, do we have to gain from self-experimentation?
As you might imagine, this book is not for the squeamish. Even if you're not put off by the ocean of body fluids, you may find the terrors of curare-induced paralysis or life under quarantine a bit troubling. Still, for those willing or eager to confront such details, Who Goes First? provides an outstanding, highly readable introduction to the rehumanization of medical research. --Rob Lightner
From Library Journal
The ethical implications of self-experimentation are not the focus of this fascinating book. Yet the subject arises frequently as Altman explores developments in a variety of medical disciplines such as cardiology, anesthesiology, pharmacology, and parasitology. Names long associated with autoexperimentation, such as Louis Pasteur and Walter Reed, lose some luster and other names gain recognition in this collection of biographical and clinical accounts. A popular medical writer, Dr. Altman blends an easy style with meticulous research. His use of primary source material, personal interviews, and retrospective literature is impressive. This book far surpasses J. Franklin and J. Sutherland's Guinea Pig Doctors ( LJ 3/1/84) and is highly recommended for academic, medical, and public libraries. Mary Hemmings, McGill Univ. Medical Lib., Montreal
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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