My Sister’s Keeper is an American drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and released on June 26th, 2009. The film revolves around a young girl named Anna Fitzgerald, who was genetically matched with her sister Kate through in vitro fertilization. Anna, who sued her parents, Brian and Sara, was conceived artificially to act as an organ bank for Kate for medical emancipation. Anna went through several painful surgeries to donate multiple tissues to help her sister survive and therefore felt she had done enough for Kate, who was suffering from acute promyelocytic leukemia. When the time came for her to donate her kidney, she settled for medical emancipation to gain control over her body. This created an ethical dilemma for Anna, donating her kidney to Kate would make her weak and vulnerable. The decision to get emancipated would lead to Kate’s death, which was against Sara’s goal since Anna was meant to help keep Kate alive, and therefore she had to litigate Anna’s actions. Utilitarian ethics and ethics of care plays significant roles in understanding and solving the ethical dilemma.
Depiction of Utilitarian Ethics and Ethics of Care
Actions and various events that unfold in the film can be described as based on or in line with the two theories, utilitarian ethics and ethics of care. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that helps identify what is right from wrong while focusing on the outcome (Smart, 2020). Actions that lead to maximum well-being are prescribed when this theory is used. According to the theory, the individuals will decide what to do for themselves alone. By doing so, they will consider their utility, which they most pleasure.
Ethics of care is mainly based on the interpersonal relationship or the interconnectedness of humanity and the moral significance of one’s relationship with others as caregivers or care receivers. According to this theory, caring motivation, the body, emotion, and logic from specific details are critical in moral decision-making (De Panfilis et al., 2019). This theory makes nurturing and protecting close individuals a highest moral obligation.
The two theories can help solve the dilemmas situation presented in the film. Anna Fitzgerald’s action of refusing to donate her kidney to save Kate, her sister who had a renal failure, is an act that utilitarianism bests describe. Before deciding to sue her parents, it is the consequentialist side of the theory that is considered, it had transpired to her that shortly after having donated her kidney, she would be unable to play soccer or become a mother or a cheer-leader. Anna considers her life meaningless without those, and therefore, to stop that from happening, she feels her utility at the expense of Kate’s. Anna thinks of herself as having been denied control over her own body by her parents, especially her mother. Sara is obsessed with Kate’s life compared to Anna’s, and she gets mad to the extent that she slaps Anna on the face when the matter is taken to an attorney.
Additionally, despite the pain that Anna experiences during surgeries, Sara’s actions are geared toward ensuring that Kate stays alive. On the other hand, Anna considers her mother’s acts manipulative, she feels she is misused and deserves autonomy. Sara was against medical emancipation because, to her, since Kate had a terminal illness, all actions that could favor her were justifiable. Because Sara was obsessed with keeping Kate alive at the expense of Anna, who was subjected to several unbearable invasive procedures. Therefore, as per utilitarianism theory, Anna’s father and brother needed her to win the case so that she could get to decide whether to help her sister or not.
As per the theory of care ethics, the film depicts the relationship between the two sisters, Anna and Kate. The two cared for each other dearly, and it would have been best for Anna to consider donating her kidney to Kate before or after being emancipated. Anna was to evaluate the main reason she was brought to the world and the reason for modifying her genome similar to that of Kate. Anna should also consider that her parents, especially her mother, went as far as conceiving her through in vitro fertilization. Therefore, she should try and achieve her main goal of donating her organ to keep Kate alive. The ethics of care theory is also depicted in Sara’s actions of fighting for Kate’s survival through all means. She loves and cares for her and expects others to advocate for her. Several scenarios in the film show how overprotective she was when she looked for Kate’s boyfriend for having hurt her daughter. Additionally, she quarreled with her husband, Brian, for taking Kate out of the hospital where she was supposed to be and full-time with the doctors. Therefore, as per this theory, Kates’s life mattered, and kidney donation was a preferable choice.
Reflection
The two ethical theories, utilitarian ethics and ethics of care can explain the dilemma situations depicted in My Sister’s Keeper (2009). Through utilitarianism, action by Anna to seek medical emancipation was okay since it was a way of gaining control of her body despite how young she was. After that, she could then decide whether to help her sister or not. In the film, after Anna won the case, she did not help or donate her kidney, and her sister died. She was considering the theory of ethics of care, being that Anna dearly loved her sister Kate. She was supposed to be her keeper and offer help whenever possible. She also considered why her mother was against her getting emancipated because her mother loved Kate dearly and was doing anything in her power to keep her alive. As explained, this theory was based on Anna’s decision to donate her kidney, considering her love for her sister and her mother’s love for Kate.
Application to Professional and Personal Life
The film contributes a lot to my personal life and as medical personnel. Personally, Sara’s obsession with Kate’s condition at the expense of Anna was not ethically correct; all of the children should be treated equally and humanly. Anna should not be treated as an organ bank, where organs and tissues are extracted as spare parts to correct another being. As the surgeries were becoming too much, Sara kept pushing for more organ donation, and I concur with Anna’s action to get medical emancipation. This is because Sara’s act was then becoming insane; the family was supposed to apply for a donation from elsewhere, or else she would have lost the two girls. As medical personnel, it was unethical, and the act of multiple surgeries was against the principle of non-maleficence, which does not approve of harming a patient during surgery and treatment.
References
Cassavetes, Nick (Director). (2009). My Sister’s Keeper. (Drama Video), imdb.com. Web.
De Panfilis, L., Di Leo, S., Peruselli, C., Ghirotto, L., & Tanzi, S. (2019). “I go into Crisis When…”: Ethics of Care and Moral Dilemmas in Palliative Care. BMC Palliative Care, 18(1), 1-8. Web.
Smart, J. J. C. (2020). Utilitarianism and its Applications. In New Directions in Ethics (pp. 24-41). Routledge. Web.