Jodi Picoult is an author who often puts her characters through terrible events, such as surviving school shootings, being in Auschwitz, having cancer, and dealing with infidelity. When asked about this in an interview, Picoult stated that she does this partially because she is superstitious about it. She believes that if she writes about these horrible events happening to her characters, they will not happen to her family or in her area. While she knows this is not the case, it is something that justifies writing about terrible events. The novel that is focused on in this blog deals with a character that is diagnosed with cancer and the ramifications associated with a family member having cancer. http://www.jodipicoult.com/JodiPicoult.html
In the first one hundred pages of Picoult's novel, My Sister's Keeper, the youngest daughter of Brian and Sara Fitzgerald, Anna, is actually made to be spare parts for her older sister, Kate, who has been diagnosed with leukemia. Anna struggles with the origins of why people have children, which is mainly because she is concerned that she only exists because her sister is sick; if it weren't for Kate being diagnosed, she never would have been born at all. The Fitzgeralds already had two children before Anna - a son, Jesse, and a daughter, Kate. Unfortunately, their son Jesse was not a match to donate anything to Kate, thus the unborn Anna became the best option for Kate's survival. Anna has gone through many medical processes that have hospitalized her almost every time that her sister has been hospitalized to give Kate everything from blood to bone marrow. We now learn that Kate's kidneys are failing, and she needs a transplant, which Anna's parents assume she will give without a fight.
Instead we find Anna seeking out an attorney, Campbell Alexander, to sue her parents for the rights to her own body, known as medical emancipation. When Anna's parents initially find out about what Anna is doing, they believe that she is joking and simply looking for attention. Much to their surprise, Anna is serious and determined to follow through with the legal processes involved. Anna's mother, Sara, is furious. She is not mad because of what she is doing, rather she is mainly upset about what this means for Kate and the rest of her family. Since Kate's leukemia is a very rare type of leukemia, she needs an exact genetic match for everything that goes into her body, which is why Anna was created in the first place. If Anna does not give Kate one of her kidneys, it is assumed that Kate will die.
Shortly after going to court to work out when the hearing will be, Kate becomes very sick and is found in her room throwing up blood - a sign of severe renal failure. Sara becomes concerned with whether it is still possible for Kate to receive a transplant, and discovers it is even more critical now for the kidney to come from Anna. While Jesse is in the room when all of this is happening, Kate tells him to tell Anna. Now the question remains in Jesse's mind and the reader's mind - tell Anna what?
