A theme or central idea in the novel My Sister's Keeper is One must appreciate a sister while she is still there. Anna Fitzgerald is a thirteen year old girl who's sister, Kate, is very sick with an aggressive case of leukemia. Finding a reliable match for the bone marrow transplants and eventually a liver that Kate so desperately needs is an extremely hard thing to do. After some consideration the Fitzgerald parents decide to genetically engineer a child with the same bone marrow as Kate so they get a perfect match. As Anna grows up, she comes to realize her situation. She feels like her only purpose in life is to help Kate. In the quote that follows she is talking to her lawyer explaining her situation. "'oh right' I say, tearing up again. 'When you complain because someone's sticking a needle into you for the tenth time, it's considered standard operating procedure. All the adults look around with fake smiles and tell each other that no one voluntarily asks for more needles' I blow my nose into a Kleenex. 'That kidney-that's just today. Tomorrow it'll be something else. It's always something else'" After telling her parents many times she does not want to do any more tests and her being ignored all times she takes more desperate measures. Anna hires a lawyer and sues her parents for the rights to her own body in hope to never have to do another test or procedure again.
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetic-inequality-human-genetic-engineering-768
This article explains genetically engineered humans and what limits people should go to with human engineering. This also talks about designer babies and what the world would be like with super babies roaming the earth.
Did you enjoy this book? This book sounds really interesting I going to add it to my to read list.
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