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(More customer reviews)Normal at any Cost is a cautionary tale of doctors' attempts to control children's height through medical intervention. For more than half a century, in order to curtail growth in tall girls and to enhance growth in short boys, doctors have resorted to unorthodox, unproven, poorly understood hormone treatments. Doctors' decisions to administer treatments were not the result of sound medical practice, but the result of pressure from parents and drug companies, or doctors' own personal reasons. Initially, doctors only treated children whose hormone levels were out of normal range, yet eventually they began treating children who were healthy and developing within the norm, but whose parents wanted height adjustments for social / cultural reasons. In the Introduction, the authors note that they are not trying to "discourage a parent from taking a poorly growing son or daughter to be examined by a doctor. Growth is the primary indicator of health in a child...[but] medicine can [quickly] move from curing disease, to treating disability, to leveling disadvantage, to satisfying desires for perfection" (p. ix). Through the stories of the children, who are now adults, readers learn of the lasting physical, psychological, and emotional impact of this medical application on their lives.
Normal at any Cost is an eye-opening, thought-provoking book that provides a revealing look at the issue of height control. Meanwhile, it encourages deep consideration of the ethical issues involved. These issues are numerous and far-reaching and will become more important as medical science finds other means of manipulating our genes. Interesting and easy to follow, this book reads like a novel: One can only wish that it were.
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