Wednesday, September 24
6:00 pm
Masha Gessen
Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene
$9, Discounted Member Price $6

Following the death of her mother from breast cancer, Masha Gessen underwent genetic testing which revealed that she had a mutation that predisposed her to ovarian and breast cancer. This discovery gave Gessen—along with an ever-growing portion of the population—a new way of knowing herself, through what is inscribed in the strands of her DNA. As she went through the wrenching personal decision of how to use this information, Gessen explored the brave new world of genetic testing, speaking with others like her as well as medical researchers, historians and religious thinkers. Examining the way genetic information is shaping the decisions we make—from our personal health to who we marry to the children we bear—Blood Matters is a much-needed field guide to this unfamiliar (and unsettling) territory.

Masha Gessen began her career as a journalist in Moscow in 1991, and has since established herself as contributor to both Russian- and English-language publications, including The New Republic and the New Statesman. She is the Russian correspondent for US News & World Report and has been a contributor to Granta. She has written two previous works of nonfiction: Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia after Communism and Esther and Rutya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler’s War and Stalin’s Peace.

"Blood Matters is valuable reading to almost anyone facing a huge health decision, not only for the literary commiseration it offers, but also for the inspired example of medical sleuthing on one’s own behalf that it provides ...”
 -The New York Times

Support provided by the Helen Littman Moskowitz & Sophie Eisenberg Stollman Fund, established in part to support breast cancer awareness.

Presented in partnership with the 16^th Street J’s Stuart S. Kurlander Program for Gay & Lesbian Outreach and Engagement (GLOE)

Co-sponsored by the Mautner Project and the American Technion Society

Purchase Tickets  Buy the Book