Savior Siblings A Case Study Based On My Sister's Keeper: Bill Anwar P. Breis

2018
Savior Siblings; A Case

Study based on My
Sister’s Keeper
BILL ANWAR P. BREIS
1. Given what you’ve just seen, which character are you most sympathetic to?
Why?
 I am most sympathetic to the character of Sara, the mother of Kate and
Anna. It is so hard for a mother to see both of your daughters suffering.
Sara is put into a situation where in she is torn on wanting Kate to survive
leukemia and seeing Anna suffer in every operations that she needs to
undergo just to save her sister life. There are also a lot of other things that
Sara gave up. She forgot about Jesse having dyslexia, she gave up her
career as a lawyer, and she almost lost spending time with his husband.
She was so busy with Kate that she almost forgot about having a family.
She had a hard time letting go Kate without knowing that both of them
suffered a lot because of it. I am happy that she finally let Kate go at the
end and decided not to continue the kidney transplant because after the
death of Kate, everyone in the family accepted it and the good side is they
finally had a different visions in their life and started anew.
2. Imagine you are the mother: while Kate is dying, you discover that Anna refuses
to give Kate the last possible life-saving treatment. How would you react? How
would you try to keep your family together?
 I would completely react differently on the way Sara reacted first in the
movie. I would contemplate and come to realize that Anna is somehow
correct. To think that there is a big risk that Sara would lose Anna also
after donating her kidney. Even her sister said that there is something
bigger in the world. I would’ve considered the conditions of Kate, Anna
and Jesse as well. They need equal treatment. I’ve seen Kate fought
enough to live and the best thing to do for her not to suffer anymore is to
let her go. The family had a good fight for her but her condition got
worsen.
3. Do you think it is ethical to design and conceive a child that meets specific
genetic requirements?
a. If so, is PGD ethical in all cases? (prevent miscarriages, prevent inheritable
genetic diseases, sex selection for social reasons, etc.)
b. If not, do you believe there should be specific exceptions- such as saving
another person’s life-or is this just a slippery slop?
 According to medical experts, PGD is is ethically acceptable if it is done
for a good reason such as preventing the child to have a disease. As per
Anna’s case, it is a bit unfair for her that she was conceived just for the
sake of saving her sister’s life. It was unfair at first, but eventually Anna
learned to accept that she was being needed by her sister. At the end of
the movie, she had realizations that it was not about her being a spare
part baby, but it is all about her sister and how they learned life lessons at
the end of the story.
4. Knowing what you know about PGD, do you agree with the parent’s choice to
design Anna to save Kate?
a. Is it ethically ok to screen embryos for desired genetic traits, and reject the
undesired embyros?
 I agree, as long as they should have given their children equal treatments
in the family. It is okay to conceive a child for the purpose of saving your
other child as long as there is no unfair treatment to the other child. Being
conceived to save another’s life doesn’t mean you don’t need to give
equal love to the child. Both Anna and Kate had no other choice but to do
what is destined for them to do.
5. How does the knowledge that Anna was conceived to save Kate affect Anna/s
and Kate’s perceptions of themselves, and their relationship with each other? For
instance, you might consider the following:
a. Will Kate feel guilty knowing that Anna was created to save her life?
b. What if Anna can’t save Kate? Will Anna face lifelong psychological damage?
c. Does Anna feel objectified as a “spare parts baby”? Does Kate feel objectified
as a sick person?
 I think Kate felt a little bit of guilt after Anna spoke for herself when they
were having a dinner. Anna said all what she felt during that time and
somehow all of it stroke her hard. As a result, she even let Anna go speak
to a lawyer and sue her parents to not to give her kidney anymore to her.
She did that because I think Kate felt that everybody’s life is being
miserable because of her and she think that she is already ready to let go.
 It depends on how Anna take the situation, I can see in the movie that she
is strong enough to handle those kind of situations, and there is a part in
the movie wherein they talked about Kate’s death and she even said that
Kate should wait for her there. I think she wouldn’t face lifelong
psychological damage since she know that they already did everything
just to save Kate and they’ve seen Kate struggle enough.
 Everyone will feel objectified given to those kind of situations, what is
important is the lesson that we picked to all what happened to us.
6. Do you think the parents went too far in their concern for Kate by making Anna a
savior for Kate? When is it too far to save one child by using the body of
another? By taking umbilical cord? Bone marrow transplant? Kidney donation?
After Anna has spoken up in opposition to any further use of her body?
 It is not too far if the intention is to save their child’s life. In every action
there is a corresponding reason. They did that for a reason. It is more
unethical if they let the innocent child die. It is not wrong to fight for the life
of your daughter. It will be ethically wrong if they conceived a child to save
their other child and yet they treat their other children improperly. What’s
important is to not let Anna feel that she is just a spare part baby. They
need to let Anna feel that she lived not just to help her sister but also as
their daughter. That is the most important thing to do.
7. Recall the physician in the movie who recommended PGD, an ethically
questionable procedure, “off the record”. If you were the physician, would you
recommend PGD to a couple in a similar situation?
 I will depend my answer based on the situation, in the movie there is no
other way to save Kate’s life but PCG. It was the only option. If PCG, they
will be having a hard time finding a donor that would match Kate’s. I think
PCG would best solve the situation of the couple in the movie because
they were so desperate for Kate to live. All throughout the movie, they
may face hardships and circumstances, but what’s important is they find a
way to live their lives and they found their way to live happy after Kate’s
death.

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2018

Savior Siblings; A Case

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