Seizure (Cook novel)

Seizure is a 2003 novel by American author Robin Cook which explores the concerns raised by advances in therapeutic cloning.^[1][2][3] It debuted at Number 6 on The New York Times Best Seller list on August 3, 2003.^[4][5] It remained on the best seller list for three weeks.^[6] In November 2004 it appeared on the paperback best seller list.^[7]

Senator Ashley Butler is a quintessential Southern demagogue whose support of traditional American values includes a knee-jerk reaction against virtually all biotechnologies. When he's called to chair a subcommittee introducing legislation to ban new cloning technology, the senator views his political future in bold relief; and Dr. Daniel Lowell, inventor of the technique that will take stem cell research to the next level, sees a roadblock positioned before his biotech startup.

The two seemingly opposite personalities clash during the senate hearings, but the men have a common desire. Butler's hunger for political power far outstrips his concern for the unborn; and Lowell's pursuit of gargantuan personal wealth and celebrity overrides any considerations for patients' well-being. Further complicating the proceedings is the confidential news that Senator Butler has developed Parkinson's disease, leading the senator and the researcher into a Faustian pact. In a perilous attempt to prematurely harness Lowell's new technology, the therapy leaves the senator with the horrifying effects of temporal lobe epilepsy—seizures of the most bizarre order.

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