Communication
Movie Review: My sister’s keeper
My Sister’s Keeper is a movie which confronts the complicated subjects of reproductive and genetic technologies. Anna is the donor child who continues playing this role for the past thirteen years. However, she decides to stop playing this role when her parents want her to donate one of her kidney to keep Kate alive.
The novel displays ethical dilemmas faced by each character. One of the significant ethical dilemma displayed in this movie is whether it is correct to sacrifice one child to save the life of another child. Kate was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was a toddler. To save the life of Kate, Anna’s parents brought her into this world. Anna is a genetically engineered baby who was tailor-made to match the exact genetics of her sister Kate. The audience is moved with the organs that Anna has to donate to ensure that Kate survives. Finally, Anna hires a lawyer to sue her parents from the ongoing medical emancipation that she has to undergo for Kate’s survival. The movie further portrays that Kate convinces Anna to hire a lawyer on the pretext that she has undergone enough suffering. Moreover, Kate was not happy with the idea of Anna donating her kidney to ensure Kate’s survival.
A more subtle issue is the manner in which Anna was genetically engineered to match the genetics of Kate. The movie explores the concept of “Saviour Siblings” in which one child is used to save the life of the other child. One of the significant ethical questions with respect to the concept of saviour siblings is that a child is brought into the world for a specific purpose. The child, Anna was assigned a purpose prior to her birth and her body was used several times without her consent to save the life of her sister Kate. The conduct of Sara to continuously save the life of her child Kate also depicted subtly the manner in which Anna was viewed as a commodity. The parents showered all affection and care to the sick child, Kate which left Anna and her brother, Jess, to have an invisible life.
The movie further portrays the ethical dilemmas of reproductive autonomy. Brian and Sara’s depiction of reproductive autonomy is in sharp contrast with the presence of children who are devoid of the freedom to express their own thoughts and opinions. This makes the audience to ponder on the negative impacts that reproductive decisions may have on the society in general by exploring further ethical implications of social responsibility, genetic solidarity and the generation of conflict. Ethics also hold that the basic rights of a child should be safeguarded even it they clash with the aspirations of the parents. The movie depicts the plight of both Kate and Anna who are unable to voice their own feelings and opinions. In their zest to save Kate’s life, the life of Anna is compromised. Another ethical dilemma is the negation of parental responsibility towards a child. The assumptions concerning responsible parenting maintains the safeguarding of a child against hurt or harm. In this case, Anna was continually being harmed as her body parts were used to save the life of her sister Kate.
My sister’s keeper depicts situations of ethical dilemma which may force parents or impacted children to take a decision that may have blurring ethical consequences. It further depicts the ethical dilemmas that has evolved with the breakthrough in technology in the fields of genetic engineering and reproduction process.
Works cited
My Sister’s Keeper. Dir. Nick Cassavetes. Perf. Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Jason Patric and Alec Baldwin. Curmudgeon Films, 2009. Film.
