Has anyone read this or maybe want to discuss? I just finished reading My Sister's Keeper and the topic of organ donation the way it is presented here is really interesting.

For anyone who hasn't read, it is about a family whose little girl is diagnosed with APL (acute promyelocytic leukemia). In order to save her life, her parents conceive a child who is a genetic match for their daughter in order for her to donate cord blood for her sister. But it escalates to donating different types of organs and tissues to her sister, raising the question of whether or not it is right to have one child to save another or expect her to undergo countless medical procedures against her wishes.

my mom and i discuss this book all the time. I still say that the mom was way out of line and that you shouldnt mistreat the child you had to save the other.... just crappy parenting. if you're going to have a child for the sheer fact of saving a child, atleast show the other child some TLC every now and then.

Now how do you feel about it if the second child gives their consent to donate organs and tissues to save their sibling? Should they be allowed to donate or should they not be allowed to donate tissues and organs until they are a consenting adult?

Granted, no child should be ignored or abused in favor of another child. In this book I do think the parents loved all their children but the fact that their daughter was sick clouded their perception to the point that they couldn't see what they were doing to the other two kids.

I have read a book by Jody Picoult and found that it was a real page-turner.

I've read reviews of My Sister's Keeper, and kept asking myself the same one question that nobody seemed to feel like asking: is such a situation possible, have there ever been such cases?
Because if the answer is "No" isn't it a lot of arguing and wipping up public interest for nothing?
I know that parents and doctors would use bone marrow from a sibling for example, but I read in the reviews there was a question of the youngest sibling donating a kidney, and I thought this sounded like science fiction.
Don't you have to be a grown up to donate an organ?

But as I said I admit that Picoult's style is hard to resist.

This was the first book I ever read by Jodi Picoult. It was a real page turner, although the ending was a tiny bit of a let down for me. I found it really hard to feel anything for the mother in the story - the father's character was a lot more sympathetic. But I think the mother was not really a bad person. I'm pretty sure she loved both of her daughters, but I agree that her judgment was very clouded by her older daughter's illness. Legal implications aside (regarding whether or not this situation would ever really be able to occur), it was a compelling read.

Hi Ophelia,

Yes this has been done in the past which is why it is a hot topic. There was a movie done that I had seen a few years ago based on a true story about a family who's daughter was sick so they conceived a child in the hopes that the new child would be a match for the older one. You can do an internet search for "designer baby". BBC news has just such an article online now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3002844.stm

With the way genetic testing is going people can conceive children who are a genetic match. I believe I read if a baby is conceived naturally it only has a 25% chance of being a match for an older sibling so conceiving in a lab where the genes can be "programmed" so to speak gives the parents a better chance of having a match.

However, I don't think any doctor would do a procedure on the younger child that would endanger the child's life to save the older one. This book is an extreme example with the kidney donation.

Apparently, they are going to making My Sister's Keeper into a movie.

I have read this book. Picoult selects topics before they become nationally "talked about". I do believe that this is happening now or will happen. "Designer children". Parents want "perfect" children and if money is not an object, they can do whatever it takes to have them or make them ok. Genetics is a wide open field.

Hello Moeh, welcome to Booktalk!

Would you like to tell us a little about yourself by writing in the "Introductions" forum?

I purchased this book last night, it's going to be my first Picoult book.