Fetal Distractions

Lorena, a down and out Scandinavian prostitute and in-debt-to-man-low-lifes Concentration Camp survivor is selected to take part in studies conducted by high-level, well established Professor Doctor Horstadius in 1950s Norway.   The ‘good doctor’ impregnates his ‘subjects’ (prostitutes of various varieties, mostly) with his own (superior genetic) sperm, then contracts the women to have their babies extracted at various stages of pregnancy for anatomical study of human embryological development.  The Professor pays good money to his ‘girls’, the candidates having been personally chosen by his wife.  But when Lorena has a change of heart, or more accurately, an awakening of Soul, she wants out of the deal.  It evokes the Professor’s rage and relentless pursuit, her getaway made possible by (a) the Professor’s favorite student, Jon Svenson, a young, status-hungry scientist who find his priorities changing very fast, and (b) the unexpected help of the ‘good doctor’s’ black-hearted and embittered wife.
The story of 1950s Scandinavia is related by an Elder Svenson in 1972, hiding out as a high school teacher in America, still hiding out from the now-world-famous Professor Horstadius.  As the time has come, Svenson finally relates the tale to Tina, Lorena’s daughter who was born in secret and, for her own safety, has not been told that her mother is still alive.  Tina’s lifelong premonition that her mother is not dead leads her and Svenson to finding Lorena, then settling old scores with the ‘good’ Professor as he is about to be awarded a Nobel Prize for his ‘innovative’ work in human fetal development. 

Comment:  Psychological/action medical thriller.   Appeals to women who are connected to life issues, but speaks to men as well, revealing the underbelly of very dark worlds in ways that hit the mind and heart.  Mature audience.  Based on a very real story about the a Scandinavian Scientist Physician whose medical observations still remain in mainstream biomedical textbooks today.