Reflection of the Ethical Dilemma in My Sister's Keeper Movie

In the film, “my sister's keeper” tells the story of a girl named Kate dying from cancer while her sister, Anna, tries to sue her parents for medical emancipation. Anna wants to sue because she never gave permission to her parents that she is fine with getting punctured by needles and getting multiple surgeries at such a young age. One of the four ethical themes that were presented throughout the movie would be, genetic engineering.

Genetic engineering basically means that somebody modifies the characteristics of an organism by manipulating its genetic material. Through the process of reproduction and heredity, dna molecules from two or more sources are combined either within cells, then inserted into host organisms in which they are able to grow. In, “my sister’s keeper” when Kate’s parents had found out she had acute promyelocytic leukemia, which is a blood and bone marrow cancer. Kate’s mom was panicking, wondering if there was any possible treatment or anything they can do to help and save her. Therefore, the doctor recommended to do genetic engineering. To help keep Kate alive a doctor suggests that the parents have a designer baby that will serve as a donor of all sorts to Kate as she encounters problems. Although this was very much illegal, her parents were completely convinced that if they have more children, one sibling could be a match for kate. Although, the father disagrees in a way because he thinks that his wife only wants another child to replace kate when she dies but she just wanted to create Anna to see if shes a possible match for kate to be her donor.

In my opinion, that is not the right thing to do to a poor child. Bringing in a child to this world just to be used as a test subject isn't correct. I understand where the parents and doctor were coming from saying that if its a possible match it could save her life but you’re also taking away Anna’s life as well. You may be saving one daughters life but you’re hurting the other without realizing it. The mother had no clue that Anna was hurting. She never got the chance to say no, so she went to go try and sue her parents and made a new law to have the age of consent changed. I get that you either have to choose if you want kate to live or die, if you do not do a genetic mutation then she most likely will die but if she does then she might have a chance of survival. I think overall genetic mutation is wrong for some situations, especially the story of “my sister’s keeper”.