Invasive Procedures (novel)

Invasive Procedures (2007) is a medical thriller by Orson Scott Card and screenwriter Aaron Johnston. This novel was based on the short story "Malpractice" by Card.

Additional recommended knowledge

Don't let static charges disrupt your weighing accuracy

Essential Laboratory Skills Guide

How to quickly check pipettes?

Plot

Invasive Procedures is a story about the dangers of genetic manipulation.

Background: George Galen, a brilliant geneticist, won the Nobel Prize for biology but was then shunned by the scientific community for his radical views--he believes in the uninhibited enhancement of human genes. Disillusioned, he dropped out of the public eye for several years. He continues his genetic research and starts a new cult of people called Healers, who go around feeding the homeless and helping them recover from injuries. As we shall see, the Healers and, to a lesser extent, Galen himself, are genetically enhanced.

The book starts with Dolores, a homeless woman trying to sleep in a park. A couple of Healers and George Galen pick her up, promising her good food and a clean, warm bed to sleep in. Dolores believes them and gets in their van. She sits down next to four others--Byron, a lawyer; Hal, a drunkard; and Jonathan and Nick, two teenage boys--and a Healer pulls out a gun to make sure they don't escape. Galen is actually taking them to his headquarters, with unknown plans...

Meanwhile, Frank Hartman, a virologist, has just completed his cure for V16, a deadly, insanely fast-acting and -spreading virus. V16 is a virus developed by George Galen to alter someone's DNA to fix genetic defects like Parkinson's disease. By nature, the virus must be very quick to change all of the patient's DNA before the body rejects the new cells, and this means death within minutes to someone other than the intended patient. Frank is summoned by the BHA (the BioHazard Agency of the U.S. government) to test his countervirus on a few victims; he hesitates to administer it to patients who really need the virus to repair their genetic defects, but the agents with him, Carter and Riggs, persuade him to do it.

A third thread of the story is what's-her-name, a heart surgeon. She and her six-year-old son Wyatt are kidnapped by Galen--Wyatt is used as leverage to make her follow Galen's orders.

Basically, Galen's plan is to use the five homeless people he kidnapped (though Byron isn't actually homeless; his car was just broken down) as subjects for his pseudo-reincarnation. He and those five people will be put under the knife; the heart surgeon will transplant one of Galen's organs into each of their bodies and will inject each of the five with V16 designed to give them Galen's DNA; and she will also place a computer chip in each of their heads that contains all of Galen's memories. The chip will activate and give them George Galen's mind when their DNA has finished turning into that of George Galen. Unfortunately, now that the BHA is about to stop his little operation, Galen has to rush his plan... major drama ensues.

See also

• List of works by Orson Scott Card
• Orson Scott Card