Back in 1974, Colleen and John Swanson couldn't have been happier. Middle-aged and newly married, they enjoyed the good life in Midland, Michigan. John was the consummate "company man" at Dow Corning, where he proudly oversaw a world-renown program of corporate ethics. Colleen devoted herself to their blended family and lovely home.

Hoping to enhance her appearance, Colleen received silicone breast implants made by her husband's company. Within months, she began to suffer from a variety of health problems that mystified her doctors and nearly destroyed her life.

Now after years of continual pain and physical deterioration linked to leakage of silicone from her implants, Colleen is one of hundreds of thousands of women who have come to blame Dow Corning for their debilitating ailments. John Swanson has left Dow Corning, stonewalled and shunned in his attempts to prod company executives into acknowledging responsibility for the implant crisis. The FDA has declared a voluntary moratorium on the sale of silicone implants.

And Dow Corning itself, following years of public battles and alleged negligence, is in bankruptcy. These are the strands that veteran journalist John A. Byrne masterfully weaves into a riveting whole in Informed Consent. The result is a brilliant work of investigative journalism - an emotionally charged tale of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary web - and a compulsively readable inquiry into public and private matters that should concern us all.