My Sister's Keeper

I READ A NOVEL. It's been a while since I read non-engineering books. Jodi Picoult my love =D somehow I managed to finish reading this within ONE DAY, despite all the packing and cleaning of my new room.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult =)

I bet most who read this is not a reader of Jodi Picoult so it's okay for me to type the synopsis here. After all, the main thing of this post is about interpretation of the synopsis, not the synopsis itself.

This is a beautifully-written novel which is basically about the struggle and search of finding a true identity of a thirteen-year-old girl. She was a genetically-modified baby made to donate stem cells for her older sister, who was ill. For all these years she lived donating parts of the body without her consent and one day, she realized she had enough. From stem cells to granulocytes to kidney. No one wants to have her kidney cut off, of course. From there, she filed a lawsuit to have her body medically emancipated from her parents. After all the struggles, she had the emancipation but somehow she was involved in a car accident so she ended up donating the kidney to her older sister anyway.

The girl felt that she was born for her sister. The reason why her parents conceived her was to donate stem cells for her sister. And then, whenever her sister fell ill, she was always hospitalized along with her sister to donate different parts inside her body. Blood, cells (okay I feel pain as I type this). Imagine going through all the pain, without her consent. Her parents never asked her whether she wanted it or not; all that was running in their mind was to save their older sister. Sure, it is important to save the life of the sick as the older sister was sick and the younger one not. However, was it fair for the healthy to go through all the pain just to save the life of the sick? Was it fair to take away her body parts and then leaving her sick and hospitalized multiple times just to keep the older sister alive? And now, they were asking her to donate a kidney ALIVE. Imagine living life with only one kidney. Can still live, but it makes her no different from her sick sister, as both are living on one kidney. Was it fair for someone healthy to go through all this pain?

Even if she won the lawsuit and obtained the emancipation, she would have this dilemma. The decision made somewhat means she's killing her sister, indirectly. God did make her life for a purpose though, by twist of fate she was involved in an accident. That ended her dilemma as she would donate the kidney for her sister in the end. The kidney was the final gift from her with undivided love. Best thing is, the love was not one-sided. Her sick sister actually felt the pain she had to endure, and actually supported her to fight for her own body. She (sick sister) felt even more sick having to see her healthy sister going through all the pain, which she wasn't suppose to. She said, "I had enough". She wanted all these donation to stop and just let her die. Somehow, it did not end that way. The sister had her kidney and lived a normal life, and even wrote the epilogue in 2010.

If the older sister was not sick, she would not be conceived. Then she would not exist. But in a way the mother did admit she was selfish as she only make decisions which was best for her older daughter, not the younger one. She never asked the younger daughter whether she "wanted to do it" or not. She only assumed that the younger one was the extra piece of meat meant to cut and fed for the elder one.

But if the younger one was not born, will the older sister die? Based on the novel, there are some other ways, but those ways are higher at risk and are not definite. Conceiving a newborn baby and having the child to donate parts to the sick sibling is the best, by means having the highest chance of saving the sick sibling. But no one ever considered the feeling of the donor. If the donor is dead can understand. But all these were donated when the donor was alive and she could feel the pain all her life. The only person that actually considered the pain of the donor was the sick sister, who was also the patient. Ironically.

I could somewhat feel the struggle each side was feeling; the parents, the younger sister and the elder sister. The emotions depicted were beautiful, and heart-wrecking at the same time. One could actually feel the dilemma felt; the pain experienced; the feeling of being treated unfairly; the guilt of having one to go through all the pain when she doesn't even need to. All the mixtures of these feelings ultimately brought to one thing - LOVE. The love from the parents to the sick daughter. The love from the sick sister to the healthy sister. The love from the healthy sister to the sick sister. The love from the parents to the healthy sister. The love from the healthy daughter to the parents. If it was not love, the dilemma can never be solved. The love from the healthy sister to the sick sister ultimately conquers all. She donated the kidney before she died. It was because of this one quote:

"Only one thing's a constant. "Ten years from now," I say, "I'd like to be Kate's sister.""

FYI Kate's the sick sister. I have this habit of not mentioning names. Don't mind me.

All these actually questioned me about the ethics by medical officers regarding the decisions made which involves one life or the other. One such example is a Siamese twin, with one of them fatally ill. The surgeons faced a dilemma on whether to end the life of one of the twins so that the other one could live or not to do it at all, as it is considered murder (morally). There, I just stirred up yet another dilemma. Pandai betul me.

All in all, it is a beautiful novel worth reading =) and worth the money spent. RM35 ahhh.

p/s: My sentimental side is growing.