Be aware, it’s a touchy topic and I’ll admit to crying part way through – It appears I am an emotional wreck at the moment!
So I’m currently sobbing my way through My Sisters Keeper.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s about a couple whose daughter is diagnosed with leukaemia at a very young age, and as neither they nor their son are a match for her, they decide to ‘engineer’ another child through IVF, in order to save the elder ones life. Anna is conceived in order to be a genetic match for her older sister Kate.
If you haven’t seen it and want to (it’s a brilliant watch!), avoid the P.S. at the end.
Now, I’m no more than half way through the film and I’ve cried more tonight than I have in a long time. Why? Because it had me asking myself possibly one of the most controversial questions I ever have:
If, (god forbid) my child was diagnosed with such a horrendous disease and neither myself or the rest of our family was a match, would I consider ‘engineering’ a child in order to save their life?
Honestly? I don’t know. I think yes I would consider it, but would I go through with it?
Would I be prepared to watch another of my children suffer both physically and mentally from birth, for the other?
Could I live with myself knowing that even after all those treatments, after taking as much from that child as they possibly could, it may only make a smidgen of a difference to my other child’s life or even worse, potentially not work at all?
I would do anything for my children, anything, but could I do that? Could I choose to put them through all that, because that’s what it would be, a choice?
I don’t think I could. I really don’t think I could. As heart breaking as the thought of losing a child is, never mind it happening for real, I don’t think I could put another child through that. After all, the latter child would be no less my child than the first or second, and I couldn’t do that to them.
Oh lordy, I’m crying again!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s the wrong thing to do and I’m certainly not saying that people shouldn’t do it, after all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Everyone is entitled to make their own choices based on their own circumstances, and how strongly they feel about it. And who is to say that what is right for one, is wrong for another?
What I do know is this; this above, that is my opinion, and I would genuinely love to hear yours.
Good night & peace out!
A x
P.S.
In the end, it turns out that it was never a case of Anna wanting to take back control of her body and not wanting to save her sister, it was just a case of Kate having had enough of all the treatment and finally wanting to ‘go’.
Either way, still gets you thinking right?
Image taken from: http://faustino13.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/genetic-engineering/