"A case of need" is one of the first novels written by Michael Crichton. Considered a medical thriller, it made him the recipient of an American award for mystery writers. .
With this book, Crichton got into one of the great moral questions of the medical practice, that is abortion -remember at that time abortion was illegal in the United States. Besides, he unveiled the way doctors are among them, and the real existence of a medical society. .
The story starts when a girl from a family of prominent doctors bled to death in a hospital after an illegal abortion. In the Boston medical society there is a gynecologist known among doctors to perform abortions, Dr. Lee. He is accused by the mother of the girl, jailed and sent to trial. A friend of his, also a doctor named John Berry, confident in the innocence of his friend, risks his own career to prove it, searching for the truth through hospital labs, mansions and underground clubs. .
Although the story happens in one week, it has lots of unexpected twists. It describes how Dr. Berry investigates the case and interrogates colleagues as well as the family and friends of the girl. In spite of the threats and warns, he goes on to discover that his friend had been set up by the family of the girl to hide their problems and cover shocking secrets about the girl's life, which led her to have an abortion performed by and addicted nurse friend of her after his doctor and uncle denied to perform a fourth abortion to her niece, considering that she continued to get pregnant because she wanted to be a mother. .
I think the author was very considered when treating such controversial topic as abortion. He never stated clearly that he was for or against abortion, but if you read between the lines, I think you can tell he was for abortion because of the way he stated arguments for abortion and their correspondent counter arguments. Besides, this was a story of a doctor who performed abortions selectively being misjudged.
