My Sister's Keeper
I just finished reading Picoult's book titled My Sister's Keeper, which brought attention to and further developed ethical issues that science currently faces. I was fascinated by the book's discussion. Just as a brief summary, the book describes the life of Anna (who is about 13 years old in the book), who has undergone multiple surgeries, transfusions, etc. in order to help her older sister, Kate (about three years older than Anna), live. Kate has been battling leukemia since an early age. The issue is that Anna was conceived by her parents as a bone marrow match for Kate. Anna begins to question this role and sues her parents for medical emancipation. This lawsuit falls at a time where Kate is in dire need of Anna's kidney.
Without giving too much away about the book, I wanted to discuss whether it was ethical for Anna's parents to even conceive a child with the notion that she will help her sister live. Shouldn't a child be conceived out of love and care? Although Anna's parents truly love her, Anna was almost pressured into this role.
I felt throughout the book that Anna was doing the right thing when she was seeking medical emancipation. Although it becomes a very difficult decision, especially when the beneficiary is one's brother or sister, to stop undergoing transfusions, etc., Anna's parents forced her into such a situation, which is not fair. Thus, she should have the right to decide whether to continue with such procedures.
I was just wondering what other people thought on the issue or if anyone has read this book? There are more detailed summaries online if that helps...
posted by Amit at 6:00 PM
7 Comments:
As a freshman, I had to read this book for summer reading this year before coming to Duke. Now that we are in an English class centered on science I wish I would have read My Sister’s Keeper more recently. I don’t remember much of the detail, but I think that the decision to have another child solely for the purpose of saving another is immoral in the first place. Beyond that, forcing Anna to donate marrow and whatever else was necessary is even worse.
Essentially, a second child birthed in order to sustain the life of the first is an experiment. What if Anna had been born with a birth defect? Would you have another child to help save the first? Now you would be stuck with two sick children and no cure. Experimentation is always a risk; it is a situation in which we are not certain of an outcome. Personally, I don’t think we should put human lives at such risks.
I read the book this past summer also and I was appalled when I read that Anna's parents only had her for the sake of saving Kate's life. Altough their intention was good towards Kate, they continued to treat Anna as if she were a bucket of spare parts waiting around for whenever Kate needed them. Especially the assumption on Sarah's (Anna's mom) part that Anna would offer her kidney without hesitation or question. I agree with Jordan in that, this was an experiment and I don't think that responsible parents would chose to make such a gamble on the heads of all of their children. (This is keeping in mind the older brother was tested for compatability with Kate before Sarah and Brian chose to have another child.)
I have never heard this term: "medical emancipation." What does it entail?
"medical emancipation" means freedom to make your own choices on issues concerning your health. For example, in this book Anna's parents were making all the decisions concerning her health (including the blood transfusions, etc. for Kate), but with medical emancipation, she would be free from her parents to make all medical decisions.
thanks amit.
While reading My Sister's Keeper, I constantly thought about what I would do if I were in Anna's situation. Seeking medical emancipation from her parents was the best choice that she could have made, no matter how difficult that choice was. I could not imagine how it would feel to know that I was born simply to prolong the life of a sibling. Although Anna's parents may have loved her deeply, they crossed ethical lines by conceiving a child to fulfill a certain purpose. It seems as though no value was given to a life that was made to help another. The conflict between love and science continues to rear its ugly head throughout the novel, and sadly it did not seem possible for Anna's parents to simply love her without her fulfilling her life's purpose.
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