Kate and Taylor Ambrose

Kate finally met a boy who understood what she was going through with cancer. His name is Taylor Ambrose.   Kate was sitting in a chair in the hospital receiving platelets when she noticed that a cute boy was sitting next to her.  For the first time she initiated conversation with another patient and asked him what he was at the hospital.  He responded that he was there for chemo for APL which is a different kind of cancer than Kate’s cancer.  She starts to flirt with him and he asks for her number.  Her mother has been watching the scene unfold with her jaw dropped.  I think this was probably one of the few happy times in the book and I always smile to myself when I read it.

It was all fun and games for Taylor and Kate until a tragedy happened.  Kate and Taylor constantly called each other and thought about each other.  Their first date was seeing a movie together.  This may sound disgusting but I think the sweetest moment the two of them have is when Taylor bets that Kate can’t make it until three o’clock without throwing up when she is having chemotherapy.  At 2:57 Kate turns green in the face and before the nurse or her mom can get there Taylor holds the vomit basin on her chin and she throws up.  Taylor rubs her back until she is done to get her to relax.  After Kate is done with chemotherapy Taylor begins to get really nervous.  Taylor ended up asking her to a dance for sick kids like them at the hospital and she says yes.  Kate prepares for the dance over two days and on the night of the dance Kate’s mom drives the couple to dance.  They had such a great time at the dance and even kissed.  Three days later Kate is frantic when she goes to the hospital for more chemotherapy because Taylor hasn’t called her in three days.  Her mom asks the nurse if she has seen him and tragedy strikes. It turns out that Taylor is dead.  Sarah doesn't tell Kate until a month later when she is doing well with the cancer.  Kate is devastated and mad at her mom when she finds out.

Julia and Campbell

I did not like the fact that Julia and Campbell had a relationship in My Sister’s Keeper. I didn't like it because there was less focus on Anna. She was mainly the only character I liked to read about. There relationship was also very hard for me to comprehend at at first. I was confused if they still liked each other or didn’t. Julia kept going back and forth. She complained about having to work on a case with Campbell for five minutes and spent the next five minutes going on and on about how she admired him. I think Julia’s sister that had just gotten over a relationship was more stable than Julia. I also got mad when Julia decided to go into the gay bar. She was so sad about Campbell hurting her. I was thinking to myself,”Wow! Imagine that, Campbell hurt you again.” 

Julia has to work with Campbell on the case because she is Anna’s Guardian Ad Litem or GAL.  A GAL is the person in a court case that studies both sides of the story and determines what is best for the child. For example Julia took Anna one day to the zoo and talked to her about why she started the case and so on. Anna told her about how it feels to be poked and prodded and she talked about Kate. Julia got the sense that something was wrong with what Anna was saying. A GAL is supposed to get viewpoints from each member of the family to base her opinion on. The GAL’s opinion is the man opinion the judge listens too. That is exactly what she did. Julia has been assigned to Anna’s case and Campbell is Anna’s lawyer and also Julia’s ex boyfriend. This makes it ten times more difficult for Julia, but she toughs out in the end.

Anna's Death

I can’t imagine pulling up to a car accident and finding your own daughter in the car.  As Brian pulls up to scene he sees a small BMW and a truck.  The two vehicles are in a t-bone formation that was caused by the nasty storm.  He finds out that there are three people injured.  Brian starts to climb over all of the debris in an attempt to get to the injured people inside the smashed BMW when he realizes that the face smashed up against the window is Anna’s.  Brian screams,”Get them out!”.  He lurches over to Anna and somehow finagled her out of the car.  He then straps onto to a backboard and loads her into the ambulance.  He realizes that Anna barely has a pulse.  On the way to the hospital he calls in the information of Anna over the radio and all of a sudden her heart flat-lines.  Brian gets the paddles and barely brings it back.  I would have never been able to act as swift as Brian did; I would have been frozen the whole time.

After Brian arrived at the hospital, he and were told that Anna’s brain injury had been fatal.  Anna was brain dead and not showing any signs of improvement.  The doctor says that there is a very small window for organ donation and asks if they wish to do so.  Anna’s parents say yes.  After it is taken from her they go into her room.  All the life has left her even though she is still technically alive.  The only thing keeping her alive is a respirator.  As soon as her parents turn it off, Sarah begins to cry.  Who wouldn't   
 

Depression and Greiving After Anna's Death

The whole family experienced depression.  Brian, the dad, worked round the clock shifts at the fire station.  He did this so that he would not have to go home and see that his daughter wasn’t there.  The house felt too big for the family without Anna in it.  He also developed a drinking problem and became an alcoholic.  Sarah kept thinking that Anna was going to come back to her.  She looked for signs everywhere.  Some examples of these signs are letters in spilled salt, plants that bloomed too early, and eggs with double yolks.  Kate hated herself for telling Anna to file the stupid lawsuit for emancipation.  If Anna didn't have to sign papers and then leave with the lawyer in the storm, she never would have died.  Kate sometimes stayed in her room for days with headphones on so that she would not have to listen to her mother cry.  The Fitzgeralds suffered with grief for a while after Anna’s death.

After Anna’s death, the Fitzgerald family grieved but eventually they moved on with Anna in their hearts.  Jesse went on to graduate from the police academy and was recognized by the mayor for helping out in a drug bust.  Kate graduated from high school.  She finally followed her dreams to be a ballerina and started teaching dance to little girls. Brian worked his way through his drinking problem.  Sarah basically just survives through her life but is glad that everyone is much more closer.  Anna’s death brought the family together unlike the lawsuit that tore them apart.  
 

Are Designer Babies Ethical?

I am overwhelmed about whether designer babies are ethical.  However I do not think it is right to make sure your baby has a certain hair color or eye color.  These things don’t really matter.  I also don’t think that a person should be able  to have a designer baby if they are not ready.  There should be a test or form to fill out so that everyone is sure that this is the right choice.  A family might simply use what they need from the child and then put it up for adoption.  This would be horrible but I don’t know how messed up someone’s brain might be.  There are all sorts of bad scenarios that could happen.  I am afraid that people will take advantage of designer babies in the future.

This topic is a very tricky one, but do still think that designer babies are somewhat ethical.  There a lot more pros than cons.  If a family is ready to love and cherish the baby even though they are going to maybe use the cord blood that goes to waste anyway, I think this would be the best decision.  As long as they are not poking prodding the child their whole life.  The parents need to set a limit of how much they can take from the child.  Also the child should have as much say as the parents.  As soon as the donor doesn’t want to do it anymore, the parents need to stop the procedures.  As long as the parents love their new baby and do the right thing, I think designer babies are ethical.

The Effects of the Trial

The trial affected the Fitzgerald parents in many ways.  Anna’s mother Sarah was delirious. She could not handle the fact that her own child had filed emancipation.  She started to worry about what would happen if Anna won.  She knew one thing; Kate was going to die.  I don’t think Sarah was very strong during this time.  While one of her daughters was dying, the other was going to court against her.  I feel that Brian was just plain confused from the time he found out about Anna filing emancipation to the end of the trial.  Brian honestly didn't know what to do.  It’s not everyday a kid goes against her parents in court.  I think the reason Brian works so much is that he doesn't want to deal with his home life.  He likes being a firefighter because he can at least save lives at work even though he can’t save Kate.

The kids in the family also were affected and suffered.  Kate was very sad because of the chaos.  Kate didn’t care about the kidney because she was ready to die and didn’t want Anna to give it to her.  Anna filed emancipation because of this.  Anna was the kid who was mainly affected.  She felt a lot of pressure.  She cried a lot too because she felt like she was tearing her family apart.  When  her mother told her that she needed to cancel the trial all Anna wanted to do was give her a big hug and say okay.  Anna had determination to help Kate with her plan though, so she stuck through it.  These girls didn't give up.

The Fitzgerald Parents

I do not think that the Fitzgerald parents did a good job treating their three children equally, especially Jesse.  Jesse has been the odd one out since the beginning.  When Kate first got diagnosed with leukemia, Jesse was constantly getting dragged from babysitter to babysitter.  Overtime he began to drop out of the family even more.  When he was older, he moved out to the area above the garage.  I think he did this because he didn't want to have to deal with them anymore.  I understand that most teenagers are like this and annoyed with their parents.  This only part of why he moved out.  He moved out because he got tired of not being noticed.  He was needed in the whole scheme of getting Kate better unlike Anna, so his parents could care less what he did.  I think his parents missed out watching him grow up.

Jesse also got in a lot of trouble which I think is related to his parents not watching over him.  He got into drinking and smoking.  He has a big drinking problem because anytime someone does come around him they can tell that he is drunk.  He makes his own moonshine using a crock pot which stinks up his entire room.  Jesse took the judge’s Hummer for a joyride.  This was his most recent offense.  The worst thing that I think he did was he burned up a bunch of abandoned buildings until his dad caught him in the act.  I don’t understand how a parent could be so careless to not know that their own child was doing these things.
 

The Plot and Structure of My Sister's Keeper

     I love the plot  of My Sister’s Keeper.  I think that it is pretty action packed.  I hate when books move slowly through the plot because I really just want to know how the book ends.  I also liked that the book was about something different.  I have never read about a cancer patient and thought that it was an interesting topic.  I was even more intrigued when Anna filed emancipation from her parents.  Even though I had watched the movie before reading My Sister’s Keeper where Kate dies, it was an interesting twist that Anna died in the book. However I think that Kate should have died in the book.  It makes more since that Kate would have died. Overall I loved the book in its entirety.

I also happened to like the book’s structure.  I thought that it was neat how the book chapters were all from viewpoints of the different characters in the book.  Each chapter was titled with one of the names.  There was also a quote in between some of the chapters.  It usually related to what was going to happen in the upcoming chapter.  In My Sister’s Keeper the author provided a lot of background information upfront. I appreciated this because in most of the books that I have read I had to dig through at least a fourth of the book to understand it.  One of the parts of structure that I didn’t like was the prologue which scared me.  It talked about Anna trying to kill Kate with a pillowcase while Kate was asleep.  I think the author was trying to show Anna's jealousy towards Kate.  The structure of My Sister’s Keeper is different from other books that I have read.

My Opinion of Anna Fitzgerald in My Sister's Keeper

    My opinion of Anna Fitzgerald is that she is a brave young girl.  I would never have been able to file emancipation from my parents let alone go to a lawyer’s office by myself. Anna did both of these things by herself.  She underwent multiple surgeries and procedures that weren't even for her without complaint. Anna also sold a gold necklace that she had had since she was young so that she could give the lawyer at least a small portion of what she owed him. Anna moved out of her house to the firehouse so that her mother would not be able to win the case.  Every girl needs their mother and I think that this step was the hardest on Anna.  She was also willing to go through the surgery no matter the risks to give her sister the kidney.  There are a lot of risks and long term effects in the surgery so the fact that she would be willing to do it for her sister is amazing even if she ended up not giving it to her sister because her sister didn't want her to have the surgery.  I think that Anna is a strong girl and was able to face any problem thrown at her.

    Anna is a loving and selfless sister and has such a kind heart.  Anna never complained about having to go to the hospital to give her sister parts of  her body.  Anna was going to give Kate her kidney until Kate said that she wanted to die.  She always let her sister have the attention and never begged for more.  She knew her family was different but she loved them.  Anna also always listened to her parents.  An example of when Anna Fitzgerald was selfless was when she stayed home instead of going to an extraordinary hockey camp so that in case her sister happened to get sick she was there for her.  Another selfless moment was when Anna had to miss a gymnastics birthday party that she really wanted to go to so that she could go to give stem cells to her sister.  If I were Anna I would have been fed up with her life.   

Behind the scenes of My Sister's Keeper the novel

    Jodi Picoult is quite the renowned author and got her her big break by just being an average college student.  She has written over twenty novels. One of them being My Sister’s Keeper.  She began her writing career studying creative writing at Princeton. She held some different jobs after graduation before she chased her dreams and graduated from Harvard with a degree in education.  Picoult wrote her first book while pregnant with her first child.  Jodi and her husband live in New Hampshire with their three children.  She loves animals, and lives with her four dogs, two donkeys, two geese, and eight chickens. Wow I can’t imagine having to keep up with three kids and 14 pets! Jodi Picoult has truly accomplished a lot.

     Are designer babies ethical? Jodi Picoult thought about this when doing research for a previous book.  She was researching eugenics for the previous book which is the science of improving human characteristics through controlling the breeding of children.  This science has also been known as “designer babies”.  Picoult discovered that a family in America had gotten pregnant with a baby boy that was made to have the same bone marrow cells as his sister who was suffering a rare form of leukemia.  They gave the cord blood cells to his sister who is still in remission seven years later.  Jodi Picoult wondered how the boy would  feel if the sister was never put into remission and whether he would feel responsible.  What if he thought the only reason he was born was because his sister had cancer?  The more Picoult thought about it the more she liked the storyline for a fiction book.  Jodi Picoult went with the idea and published My Sister’s Keeper.