“My Sister’s Keeper” is a fictional story written by Jodi Picoult. It revolves around the Fitzgerald family, whose lives are profoundly affected by their daughter Kate’s long-term battle with leukemia. In a unique ethical dilemma, the parents conceive another child, Anna, specifically to serve as a compatible donor for Kate. As Anna gets older, she becomes increasingly aware of her role in her sister’s medical procedures. At a certain point, Anna decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation, seeking control over her own body. The story follows the legal battle alongside a struggling family trying to make Kate’s life as good as possible. This combination brings into light the complexities of love, sacrifice, autonomy, and the implications of using one child to save another. This novel explores these issues through the perspective of every character, including the attorney. The mother’s perspective explores grief, strength, and the need to fight for one’s child’s life no matter what. The father’s experience shows an example of someone who wants so desperately for his daughter to live, but also wants to protect the autonomy of his other daughter. The brother’s perspective tells the story of a boy who feels neglected in a family focused on a cancer diagnosis. The two sister’s go back and forth in caring for each other, and it becomes clear through this dialogue that Anna is suing her parents at her sister’s request, as her sister is ready to die. And the attorney, who suffers from epilepsy, explains his support for young Anna, despite her parent’s anger, as he knows what it’s like to not have control over his own body. The combination of perspectives explores the moral issue of bodily autonomy as deeply complex and woven with people and choices to listen to. This novel could be used in classes on medical ethics, as it raises a complex story full of moral dilemmas surrounding medical decisions and familial relationships in the face of childhood illness. It prompts conversation surrounding parental authority, blurred lines between love and autonomy, and childhood cancer.
Specifically, this story shows how cancer can affect a family, touching each person so uniquely. Kate, after a whole life of fighting, was ready to let go, whereas her mother would do anything and everything to keep her alive. Anna was happy to donate blood and organs to her sister, but sued her parents to honor her sister’s wishes, even though she lost her parents’ trust. And the attorney gives an example of when it can be important to support and listen to a child, even when their parents don’t agree. This film highlights that cancer and organ donation are not straightforward issues, and sometimes a person’s wants are contrary to the common narrative.
This book is a longer read, and it is such a complex story, which makes it difficult to break apart for shorter sections, but there is a wonderful film adaptation that could be watched in a class period. The book and film are slightly different, but all of the relevant topics and questions remain. An interesting assignment could be having different people read different perspectives and discuss what their assumptions about the other characters would be after only reading from one point of view.
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Details
Language: English
Type of Story: Book
Medium: written
Contributed by: Ruby Gates ( rubygates@lclark.edu )
Citation:
Picoult, J. (2004). My Sister’s Keeper. Atria Books.