In the "Iran Is the Enemy" subsection of chapter 1 Dr. Fry-Revere mentions the Iranian Hostage Crisis, presents the U.S. State Department travel warnings for Iran, and explains how her team dwindled to two (she and an Iranian-American physician) prior to her trip. A reference to the American State-backed coup of the Iranian Prime Minister in 1953 would have been useful for context. The decision, apparently based on fear, of a documentary filmmaker not to accompany the author on the trip was also disconcerting, at least to my previously generally favorable view of documentary filmmakers.
In the "Safe Is a Relative Term" subsection of chapter 1 the author discusses her fear of being kidnapped by cab in Iran, her fortunate meeting with an Iranian nephrologist visiting the United States prior to her trip, and her decision to not request Iranian State permission to perform her research and film her subjects. Her fear about the potential life-threatening risks of the trip is nicely conveyed. Her COURAGEOUS plan to not seek State permission to investigate the kidney donor compensation system while in Iran is my favorite part of this section.
In the "Reality Check" subsection of the first chapter the author relates a disturbing incident at her going-away party, more somber information about dialysis, and an anecdote about a visit she made to a dialysis center in Michigan. The purpose of this section seems to be to persuade readers that Dr. Fry-Revere is not a black-market kidney-selling monster. She succeeds.
In the final subsection of chapter 1, "A Painful Truth", Dr. Fry-Revere reports a conversation she had with an American dialysis patient after her return from Iran. The good: The discussion allows the author to provide the reader with relevant information about the Iranian kidney-procurement system. The bad: The time shift (a flashforward rather than a flashback) was jarring to the LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger.