The novel tackles the issues of abortion and racism as they were in late 1960s America and includes several non-fiction appendixes.

Dr. Berry's colleague, obstetrician Arthur Lee, has been arrested for performing an abortion that led to the death of 17-year old Karen Randall, a member of a prominent Boston medical dynasty.

Knowing she is a morphine addict and a nurse, Berry pretends to inject her with Nalorphine, having replaced it with water.

Lee decides to move to California to start over after being revealed as an abortionist, despite being exonerated for Karen's death.

Appendix I: Delicatessen Pathologists summarizes food metaphors used in the practice, like chicken-fat clots and oat-cell carcinoma.

Appendix III: Battlefields and Baberpoles discusses the culture difference between surgeons and physicians.

It concludes with a closer look at Garrett Hardin's pro-choice argument which is quoted in the novel's epigraph.

Crichton was furious at this, called the action "despicable", and said it misled the public into thinking it was a new novel.