MMSU College of Health Sciences
MARIANO MARCOS
STATE UNIVERSITY
An Analysis to
“My Sister’s Keeper”
Using the Principles of
Bioethics
Dadiz, Karl Renzo V.
BSN- II A
Flordeliza Tabaniag
Professor
If you're going to make yourself a mess in decision making, there's no reason you can't
make it with intelligence and insight as the makers of "My Sister's Keeper" have done. The
audience manipulation done by the movie comes from your understanding of th casts and how
this particular family operates in an atmosphere of love and mutual concern. The tragedy that
forces its way into their midst is fought with tenacity, and the conflicts within the family are
portrayed in such a manner that no one is a bad guy.
A film about a child with leukemia understandably has a small theatrical audience.
Indeed, Jodi Picoult's novel, on which Jeremy Leven and director Nick Cassavetes' screenplay is
based, might seem more at home on television, where illness, doctors and hospitals somehow
feel less alarming. But "My Sister's Keeper" does benefit from a sagacious big-screen treatment:
It allows for nuances and takes time to focus this story of an illness on all the people it affects.
The movie begins with a bit of misdirection when 11-year-old Anna (Abigail Breslin)
sues her parents. It looks like you're headed into a fascinating legal drama dealing with a thorny
ethical issue.
Anna has always known she is a "donor child." When her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz)
and Brian (Jason Patric), discover their first daughter, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), has leukemia, they
choose to conceive another child through genetic engineering who would be a perfect genetic
match with Kate. Thus, Anna can donate blood or whatever else is necessary to keep her elder
sister alive.
The two girls love each other dearly, so Anna never complains. Then, 11 years into this
routine, Kate's kidneys are failing and she'll need one of Anna's. Anna finally says no. She hires a
big-shot lawyer (Alec Baldwin), whose face adorns billboards and buses all over Los Angeles,
and goes to court seeking her "medical emancipation." But her mom, who gave up a law practice
to care for her ailing daughter, will make a ferocious opponent.
The film moves back and forth in time to show how decisions were made and how this
illness impacts everyone, including older brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson), who at times feels
overlooked because of his sisters' relay team in body parts. The movie reflects back on the joys
and sorrows of a family and how love can be just as strong whethr it weighs or not.
Thus, base on the story behind hesitations and tricking decision making, there are so
many issues that is involved in the movie that opposes the moral ethical principles of human life.
One of which includes the issue on in- vitro fertilization, wherein it is the process of fertilizing
an ovum into a glass tube and implanted on a surrogate mothe's uterus. Moreso, the in- vitro
process in the movie signifies immoral activity for the purpose of saving anothers life through
the newly formed life or Anna's life for Kate's who suffers from leukemia, there enters the
principle of double effect where there is an act foreseen to have both good and bad effect; the
good effect is saving Kate's life, and the bad effect is sacrificing Anna's life. However, it was
lifted to the court for litigation and providing protection for Anna, also through with her
autonomy. Her autonomy was violated due to her parent’s decision but there are conflicts
between the family situation, where Kate told Anna the set- up of engineering her just for the
sake of saving her sister's life. Thus, autonomy is every individual's right to self determination,
independence, and freedom to make their own choices, so Anna chose to lift it in the court for
medical emancipation. Furthermore, veracity was also violated by the parents. Their eagerness to
treat Kate's disease led them to expand their decision making ability as a rational being and opted
to include the benefits that outweighs the risk. Also, veracity means the duty to tell the truth,
where the parents hid the real purpose of her life and they've planned an immoral activity where
the principle of legitimate cooperation will enter. Principle of legitimate cooperation is any
physical or moral concurrence with the principal agent to carry out am immoral act through
giving advice or even just doing anything to make it happen and unfortunately, the parents
formally cooperated on the immoral act, inwhich they purposely made an in- vitro fertilization to
create an exact system of organs perfectly compatible to Kate's body system and their intention is
morally incorrect. Another principle involved in the story is the principle of justice, where there
is a great discrepancy between their siblings, they tend to focus only on Kate which is unjust to
the other 2children, and the decision of the parents also is not equal because they dont think
logically but, instead their attention is focused on emotional feeling and leads to the
inappropriate decision. The principle of beneficence was violated where there is no promotion of
good and best for the person, especially on Anna's side. Non- maleficence was also violated
through which the psychological being of Anna is threatened by means of hiding their real
attention and plan about her, well infact the definition of non- maleficence is doing no harm.
Another, the principle of stewardship that is being responsible in taking care of the body, life,
human nature and everything in earth, yet, the feeling of emotion of the parents dominated and
their ability to fulfill their duty as parents was forgotten just to Kate. Moreover, the principle of
extraordinary measures where Kate's kidneys are failing and she is in need of treatment that
incurs severe pain. But, the principle of totality and integrity opposes the organ donation due to
utilization of an innocent life or Anna's life and despite the principle states that we need to
preserve intact and physical component of the integrated whole. And donating Anna's kidneys
will oppose the principle and she is also not willing to participate in the act of immorality due to
her innocence and her sister's (Kate) concern.
To sum up, there are tangled issues that really needs in- depth decision making and
planning on how to execute the solution, but the situation will really isolate you in whirlpool
where you need to swim to escape death. On the side of the parents, it is really hard to decide and
weigh things on prioritization, but on my side, the in- vitro is expensive process, which basically
means that they are capacitated to purchase organs for transplants for donors that are willing to
be involved to save Kate's life.
