My Sister’s Keeper
13 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in 2009 American Movies Tags: 2009 American Movies, Best Blog, Cameron Diaz, Jodi Picoult books, My Sister's Keeper, Quarter 3 2011
I just watched a movie, My Sister’s Keeper; it is about a young girl, Anna Fitzgerland, seeking to earn medical emancipation from her parents. The reason why she wants to earn rights to her own body is because her parents force Anna to be an organ-donor for her older sister, Kate. Kate suffers from acute promyelocytic cancer. Indeed, her mother Sara had originally conceived Anna in order for her purpose to be compatible with her sick child, to be able to donate Anna’s organ, bone marrow, and umbilical cord. This means that without Kate being sick, Anna would’ve never have existed in this world. Anna realizes the circumstances about her existence when she is thirteen She was told she had to donate her kidney to her sister. Surprisingly, her sister Kate tells Anna to emancipate herself and keep the rights to her body despite the fact that Kate knows what the consequence without Anna’s organ will be. Suffering cancer, going through a bone marrow transplant, and going through chemotherapy makes human beings wish to die rather than live. This is what her sister Kate felt and this is the reason she convinces Anna to sue their parents. Hence, Kate wants to be free from suffering through cancer and wishes to set her sister free from donating her organs. The movie ends with Kate’s death during the trial.
This movie make me have a few misgivings: Would I be my sister’s donor if I had a sick sister? Would I choose to bear a child to donate his or her intestines for my other ill daughter? Would I force my daughter to donate bone marrow or her umbilical cord, even if she were to refuse? After pondering this awhile, I came to few conclusions. I don’t know. It is because I am not in Anna, Kate, or Sarah’s circumstances right now. I have never given birth to my own child before. I also do not have a sibling, dying from leukemia. Thus,I may choose what Anna did if my parents compelled me to donate an organ to my brother. Or, I could be like Kate, who convinces her sister to keep rights to her body. Perhaps years later, once I am a mother of few children, I might determine to follow Anna’s mom’s methods, using another child to save the sick one. It is not as easy as solving simple math problem, since the issue is excessively complicated. One has to think from another persons perspective. Therefore, this movie teaches me to think before I from certain opinions about other, no matter what circumstances they’re in. It also makes me see life differently. I always complain about living a life where there is a lot of work and stress. Still, it is nothing compared to having to fight an uncontrollable and painful disease, seeing my closest family member dying, and giving my organ to my sibling. My life seems like piece of cake compared to the difficult decisions and circumstances that Anna’s family faced.
*This is the promo of the movie, My Sister’s Keeper.
Photo Citation
letxy. “My Sister’s Keeper”. 25 September 2010. Flickr. Web. 13 February 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/letxym/5027568495/>
