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Oct 8, 2020 · The consent form’s wording perfectly exemplifies the kind of physician/patient hierarchy assumed at the time — doctors know best and therefore can determine the best route of treatment for their patient without patient input.
May 15, 2013 · It’s a story about multiple generations of one family used in research without consent. For more than 60 years, researchers have relied on cells removed from cervical cancer patient Henrietta Lacks to make some of the world’s most important medical discoveries.
- Introduction
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Media Adaptations
- Characters
- Themes
- Topics For Further Study
- Style
- Historical Context
- Critical Overview
Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper(2004) explores the medical, legal, ethical, and moral issues related to long-term illness—a complicated subject in the contemporary world. In the book, thirteen-year-old Anna sues her parents for the right to control her body. Conceived as a sibling donor match for her sister Kate, who suffers from leukemia, Anna h...
Jodi Picoult was born on May 19, 1966, in Long Island, New York, the daughter of Myron and Jane Picoult. She had a happy childhood growing up with her younger brother, Jonathan, in Nesconset, New York, on Long Island. Picoult began writing stories when she was young and continued the practice throughout her childhood. She also put her love of books...
Prologue
My Sister's Keeperopens with a brief prologue. Unlike the rest of the book, this section does not reveal the speaker's identity, leaving readers to wonder whether the speaker is Anna or her sister, Kate. The narrator recalls that for the whole of her life, she existed only in relation to her sister, whose death was a favorite fantasy for her throughout childhood. She says she has come to see her sister's death as a suicide.
My Sister's Keeperwas released as an unabridged audiobook by Recorded Books in 2004. Its readers include Julia Gibson, Barbara McCullough, and Richard Poe.
Campbell Alexander
Campbell Alexander is the lawyer Anna hires to represent her in her lawsuit. Though Campbell is initially reluctant to take the case, he ultimately decides to do so. He believes the case will be easy to win and will bring him publicity. Throughout My Sister's Keeper, Campbell seems to act primarily in his own self interest. He also keeps people at a distance, focusing on his career and living the bachelor life with his service dog, Judge. Both Julia and Anna push his boundaries. Campbell was...
Taylor Ambrose
Taylor Ambrose is the sixteen-year-old cancer patient whom Kate became involved with when she was fourteen years old. They met while he was receiving chemotherapy and she was getting platelets to boost her immune system. Because of the relationship, Kate did not want to receive chemotherapy when her cancer returned. After Taylor and Kate attend the Providence Hospital Prom for patients, he died.
Peter Bergen
Dr. Bergen is the head of the medical ethics committee at Providence Hospital, where Kate has received all of her treatment. The doctor is a witness in Anna's court case. He reveals that he personally advised against Anna donating a kidney to Kate, but he supports the family's attempt to save Kate through this procedure.
Ethical Dilemmas
At the heart of My Sister's Keeperis an ethical dilemma: Should thirteen-year-old Anna be forced to give her kidney to her dying sister? Through much of the novel, it seems like Anna does not want to give Kate her kidney because she is tired of being a store of spare parts for Kate. Since she was born, Anna has undergone a number of painful procedures to save Kate's life. Kate suffers from cancer and conditions related to the illness and its treatment. Her family's life has been focused on Ka...
Control
One issue that shapes many of the characters and situations in the novel is that of control. Nearly every major character in My Sister's Keeperis looking for control over some part of their existence in the face of disease. Anna, for example, seems to want to control her body and what is taken from it as evinced by her lawsuit. While it is later revealed that she actually filed the suit at Kate's behest, Anna is still looking to control the situation to give her sister what she wants. Anna kn...
Familial Bonds
The importance of familial, especially sibling, relationships is another underlying theme of My Sister's Keeper. Despite all the problems created by Kate's illness and Sara's quest to keep Kate alive, the Fitzgeralds remain a family. Though Brian and Sara have their problems, they work together to keep the family together amidst the disruptive force of Kate's illness. Even Jesse, the delinquent son, still lives at home and is there to help out when Kate is ill or Anna needs his support. In tu...
Analyze one of the poems that open each section of the novel. How does the poem reflect the content of that section? Research the background of the poem and its poet to add depth to your arguments...Research some of the ethical questions raised by the novel, focusing on a particular issue, such as creating a child specifically for its cord blood to benefit a sibling or the implications of a te...Research the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century, one topic that Picoult said inspired her to write My Sister's Keeper. Write a paper in which you compare and contrast the goals of the...In the novel, Picoult describes the action from multiple points of view, focusing on Anna, Sara, Brian, Campbell, and Julia. Jesse's voice appears much less often in the text than these voices, and...Multiple Points of View
One striking feature of My Sister's Keeperis the way Picoult uses multiple first-person narrators to tell the story. A first-person point of view tells the story from one character's perspective in his or her own voice. Each section in the novel is made up of parts designated by the name of the character whose voice and perspective is being revealed. Picoult emphasizes the differences in these voices through the use of different fonts for different characters. The use of multiple voices allow...
Flashback/Flash-Forward
Several characters use flashbacks and flash-forwards as part of their narratives. Flashbacks look back in time, while flash-forwards describe future events. The only major character in the book who does not get a voice in the main chapters is Kate. She speaks only in the prologue and epilogue, eight years after the novel's end. In the prologue, she talks about how she imagined killing her sister and that she only existed in relation to Anna. In the epilogue, Kate describes what happens after...
Heroes and Anti-Heroes
In My Sister's Keeper, Picoult contrasts the actions of heroes with those of anti-heroes. A hero is a primary character that displays commendable traits such as courage and integrity. Anna is a heroine because she takes action to give Kate what she wants. The whole point of her lawsuit is to bring her sister peace, though it costs Anna much in her life. Characters like Jesse and Campbell can be defined as anti-heroes. Anti-heroes have the reader's sympathy despite their flaws, and while not v...
Designer Babies and Genetic Planning
In interviews describing the origin of My Sister's Keeper, Picoult talks of a news story from 2000. On August 29, 2000, Adam Nash was born. He was considered the world's first "designer baby." Like Anna in the novel, Adam was conceived for a specific purpose. His six-year-old sister Molly had an uncommon type of anemia, a genetic disease called Fanconi anemia (FA), in which the body cannot make healthy bone marrow. Doctors gave the child only a year to live. Medical professionals recommended...
Guardian Ad Litem
In the novel, Julia acts as a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) for Anna in her case against her parents. The Latin term means "guardian at law." GALs are appointed by the court and ensure their clients receive due process and have their feelings and opinions known in court. A GAL is usually a lawyer, but can be any adult who has received special training. The latter are usually called Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) or Volunteer GALs. In Rhode Island, the setting of My Sister's Keeper, the GA...
Like many of Picoult's novels, My Sister's Keeper was generally embraced by critics for its gripping exploration of emotionally complicated issues. For example, Tom Jackson of the Tampa Tribune represented the sentiments of many reviewers, declaring "My Sister's Keeper is a gut-wrenching, melancholic work designed to linger in the minds of its read...
6 days ago · How did Southam justify his decision to inject HeLa cells into patients without their knowledge or consent?
Feb 9, 2020 · But more than that, and what so fiercely upset me, was that the book purported to help patients, while so obviously violating my autonomy over my story and my right to expressly GRANT permission to share my experiences. “How dare they?,” we asked ourselves again and again.
Feb 6, 2018 · In 1964, the U.S. signed international ethics guidelines pledging that human subjects must freely consent to be part of experiments, but it wasn’t until 1974 that Congress passed the National Research Act, which began the path for codifying federal rules on patient consent.
People also ask
Why does Kate not want Anna's kidney?
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Why does Jesse visit Kate in the hospital?
At least one member of staff tried to access Kate’s notes while she was a patient at the private hospital in central London in January, The Mirror reported. The princess was admitted to the ...
