My bookshelf is full of books by Jodi Picoult. Through her novels she tackles some hard hitting issues reminding her readers that not everything is black and white, which at times makes for uncomfortable reading.
Nineteen Minutes for example chronicles the story of a small town reeling in the aftermath of a high school massacre and became even more topical when it was published around the time of the Virginia Tech Massacre in April 2007.
Over Christmas I re-read My Sister’s Keeper. This is the synopsis from the Picoult website:
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate – a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now.
And then it asks this question:
Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another?
The book deals with the issue in a powerful way and as with all good novels has a twist at the end which turns everything on its head.
At the same time it raises many of the key issues around ’saviour siblings’ – currently being debated in Parliament through the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. One of the common arguments in support of saviour siblings is that the child will have a sense of pride as they grow older in the knowledge that through their life another has been saved.
Anna has her own wry opinion of the reasons behind her birth:
‘I’m telling you, if aliens landed on earth today and took a good hard look at why babies get born, they’d conclude that most people have children by accident, or because they drink too much on a certain night, or because birth control isn’t 100%, or for a thousand other reasons that really aren’t very flattering. On the other hand, I was born for a very specific purpose. I wasn’t the result of a cheap bottle of wine or a full moon or the heat of the moment. I was born because a scientist managed to hook up my mother’s eggs and my father’s sperm and come up with a specific combination of precious genetic material… See, unlike the rest of the free world, I didn’t get here by accident. And if your parents have you for a reason, then that reason better exist. Because once it’s gone, so are you.’
Picoult’s story gently weaves around the lives of Kate, the sick older sister; Anna, the life saving youngest child; their brother who, being caught in the middle, leads his own rebellion and cry for attention; and their parents trying to find the best way to raise their family. Throughout Anna’s problem is this – she was never asked if this is was the life she wanted. When Kate is in hospital for prolonged stays, Anna is there too donating blood or bone marrow. Her life is disrupted as she is removed from other children’s parties to be rushed to the hospital, finds it difficult to make friends and is unsure of how her parents feel about her. She feels so strongly that she intends to sue her parents for the right to make decisions about her own body.
The book does not present any easy answers – in fact it probably just poses more questions. It is however a reminder that while science has brought us a long way it still has no answers for emotions, feelings and that gut reaction when something does not sit easily in our minds. It is a reminder that every life is precious and that while intentions can be noble they can also have unintended outcomes that are not so noble.
I don’t envy our parliamentarians who are having to make some serious decisions on this issue. Lobbied on the one side by pharmaceutical companies with compelling arguments of lives being saved (and who stand to make big bucks from the business) and on the other from those who oppose the idea on moral, ethical and/or religious grounds and seeking to protect the sanctity of life, it must be hard for those who haven’t made up their minds to come to any sort of conclusion.
What is clear is that, should the legislation make it through, My Sister’s Keeper will no longer be fiction and could become reality sooner than we think.
