Guest Post by Sigrid Fry-Revere for the book The Kidney Sellers

This is a guest post by  Sigrid Fry-Revere, J.D., Ph.D. President of the Center for Ethical Solutions and Author of The Kidney Sellers (Carolina Academic Press, 2014).

Creative non-fiction books that aren’t biographies or memoirs are rare for a reason. They are rare because mere factual stories may lack the narrative excitement found in novels. But sometimes there are stories where the novelty of the truth itself is what makes the book exciting. Consider books like Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, where, as in my book, the author uses her own journey of discovery as a theme that ties disparate stories together.

The Kidney Sellers is my story of going to Iran to try to find answers to solving the U.S. organ shortage. When I returned from Iran, I realized my adventure had so much more to offer than what might go into an academic monograph. The story itself ranged from my son having kidney cancer at age 10 months, to my friends who were dying on dialysis, to the wonderfully sad and moving stories I heard from kidney sellers in Iran. The truth of what happened is plenty exciting in and of itself — the cultural insights and ethical and moral questions raised by what I saw are significant.

 Here is what one of my readers said about the book: “Sigrid Fry-Revere has given us an amazing, courageous, provocative, even dangerous look at the complex and generally successful system of selling/donation that has solved the kidney supply problem in Iran.  Eloquently, humorously written, it is one of my best reads in years–fascinating to anyone who loves a good travel adventure story, but essential for anyone interested in overcoming the organ transplant problem that costs thousands of lives each year.”

--Robert Veatch, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics 

All author royalties for the book go to support the Solving the Organ Shortage (SOS) project at the Center for Ethical Solutions.  The book is not just important, it is also fun and inspiring.  Enjoy reading it yourself. Share it with a daughter or other young woman you want to inspire to work for what she believes in.  You can see a photo gallery and read more of my thoughts at www.thekidneysellers.com.

Keep reading, Sigrid