Intervention: Robin Cook’s Dose of Religious Bullshit

One of the books I took to Jamaica for beach reading was Robin Cook’s Intervention. I’ve read several of Cook’s medical thrillers over the years and have generally found them both entertaining and edifying. Unfortunately, that was not the case with this book.

The principle reason Intervention disappointed me was that Cook took the curious position of indicting alternative medicine while allowing for the possibility of faith healing. Yes, you read that correctly. In Intervention, Robin Cook simultaneously offered compelling evidence against such practices as chiropractic spinal manipulation, acupuncture and homeopathy and completely ignored the dangers of faith healing. Cook achieved this by having his characters take the same route that most Western believers take: they sought both medical attention and divine intervention for their sick child. And when the child was healed, they claimed not to care which factors had been efficacious – they were just glad their child was well.

*sigh*

Okay. As a parent I get that. In a desperate situation, the pragmatic side of me – allowed to operate unchecked by my intellect – could easily conclude, “What the hell; whatever works.” I can even accept that agnostic parents – such as Cook’s principal characters – might, in desperation, seek divine intervention for their chronically ill child. But, as a reader, I cannot accept that Cook, an author who “strives to elucidate various medical/biotech ethical issues…” would allow – without offering one shred of evidence to support his position – this one exception to his general condemnation of alternative medical practices.

Cook didn’t take the extreme position of promoting divine intervention in lieu of standard medical intervention. Of course not. That position would mark him as a nut and jeopardize his standing with both the medical profession to which he belongs and his readers. And it’s probably a position he abhors. Instead, he took the safe middle way that many Westerners take: a dose of conventional medicine accompanied by a dose of religion. In short, Cook takes the following positions in this book:

1. Alternative medicine – standard medicine = not acceptable.
2. Prayer placebos/healing hands + standard medicine = acceptable.

Like many people, Cook seems to think something along the line of, as long as people don’t ignore real medicine, religious placebos won’t do any harm. Does Cook feel the same way about acupuncture? Is he comfortable if people seek pain relief from both acupuncturists and MDs? What about crystals? Are crystals combined with pills okay? Exactly how does one determine which woo is respectable and which is reprehensible? Why is religion respectable and reflexology flaky? Personal prejudice surely is not an acceptable criterion for making such determinations. The bottom line is, if conventional medicine is the only necessary ingredient, why make allowances for any woo at all? Cook never answers this question. And that really pisses me off, because he’s the one who raised it. I suspect that, had Cook addressed alternative medicine without once mentioning faith healing, few people would have noticed, or cared if they had noticed, the omission. But, Cook didn’t do that. Instead, he went out of his way to introduce the religious element into his story, presumably so that he could go out of his way to make an exception for it. Consequently, what should have been a fascinating, informative read about the dangers of alternative medicine ended up being a piss poor novel, a lame apologetic for religion and an intellectually unsatisfying waste of valuable beach time.

My advice to Dr. Cook is this: the next time you’re compelled to write a book that is both entertaining and educational, do a gut check on whether you’re willing to follow your evidence to its logical conclusion. If you’re not, then do us all a favor and write about something else. Whatever you do, please spare us another failed intervention.

– the chaplain

Advertisement