Ethical Issues In My Sister's Keeper

The movie My Sister’s Keeper challenges ethics in the health care system. Anna is a thirteen-year-old girl who is suing her parents for medical emancipation. Anna’s older sister Kate was diagnosed with Leukemia before Anna was born. No one in Anna’s family was a match to donate blood, tissues, or organs needed for Kate’s treatment. “I wouldn’t even be alive if she wasn’t sick. I’m a designer baby.” Anna was conceived by in vitro fertilization in order to ensure she would be a match to help her sister. Kate needs a kidney and her parents are forcing her to donate hers. This leads Anna to seek legal help since no one else is advocating for her.

Throughout the movie, the view is changed by each character; it is not just seen through the eye of

When the idea of IVF came up, he seemed hesitant to have a ‘tube child”. Anna has a stronger relationship with her father, she will even spend time at the firehouse with his co-workers and they appear to have so much fun with each other. At one point in the film when the lawsuit came up at the dinner table, mom wasn’t allowing Anna to speak. Dad said, “Quiet, if she has the table, she has the table.” Throughout the movie, it looks like he is trying to be silent and stay in the background, but he is really only trying to cherish each moment ad remember each moment. For example, when Kate was going to the dance, he took in every second knowing deep down how sick she was. Dad’s relationship with his wife on the other hand is on the rocks since Kates health is deteriorating. When Kates wish was to see the ocean one last time, he got everyone to go. When stopping at home, Mom became outraged and blamed dad saying he’s killer her by taking her out of the hospital. During the fight that became physical by his wife, he said that is she doesn’t come with them than “I want a

It would be important to teach the parents about assent which is the approval or disapproval of something. Current research shows that children around seven or eight can provide assent; they can voice what they want. Anna is at the age that she understands the procedures and surgeries. She can understand the pros and cons and make a decision by herself that involves her. Another teaching that the family would need to be aware of are the probability of the procedure working for Kate and the risks and life-style change Anna would need to face in life. The doctor during the movie mentioned that the chances of Kate overcoming her diagnosis from the kidney transplant were slim to none. Putting Anna through a kidney transplant for a surgery that may not even take really questions: Do the benefits outweigh the harms? If Anna were to give Kate her kidney, she would not be able to participate in sports. If her kidney were to fail later in life, she would need to find a donor because she wouldn’t have a backup. Maybe her future child would need to kidney transplant and she won’t be able to be the donor. Anna’s parents really need to take into consideration of the effects the surgery would have on her and not just look at Kate’s