Ethics in My Sister's Keeper (cont'd)

Anna was born with the sole purpose of keeping Kate alive. In the first chapter she states, “I was born for a very specific purpose. I wasn’t the result of a cheap bottle of wine or a full moon or the heat of the moment. I was born because a scientist managed to hook up my mother’s eggs and my father’s sperm and come up with a specific combination of precious genetic material.” Throughout the book Anna struggles to fulfill the role of a savior to her sister, because otherwise she has no reason to exist at all. At 13 years old, this internal conflict juxtaposes with her desire to be a free individual in control of her own body. She wants to be more than flesh and organs for transplant but she also doesn’t want to be the reason her sister dies.

If Anna was a clone, then the book could have played out differently. Maybe because of the sisters’ identical genetic makeup, the transplants of bone marrow, lymphocytes, etc. in addition to chemotherapy would have actually worked and cured Kate’s cancer. If this occurred, then Anna would have fulfilled her life’s purpose to save Kate and subsequently she could choose her own path and have autonomy over her body. She would not have to worry about dietary habits, engaging in sports that are too rigorous, or about being too far away from Kate any longer. It would be ironic for Anna to win autonomy as a genetic copy of Kate.

If Anna was cloned and she still ended up going to court to fight for her autonomy, I don’t think she would have won the case. Since she would have been made using one of Kate’s cells, then it would be controversial as to whether she is her own person or if she is an extension of Kate. Since her DNA exactly matches Kate’s genome then the latter opinion might be favored. The court might view it as a choice to save the life of an artificial clone or the original human that made it possible for that clone to exist. The potential to under-value Anna’s life leads me to conclude that human reproductive cloning should not be explored at any point in the future.