The Perfect Baby
How does this work?
From one sister too another...
To whos ever lap this ends up in-
My name is Sarah and I am a donor baby, a saviour sibling for my sister. I was created in a petri dish to save her life. For those of you who don’t know what this is, I’ll give you a quick run down. My parents created me to be a donor for my sister who is dying of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL for short. Scientists used a tacpreimplantation genetic diagnosis, matching my genes to hers to make me a perfect match for my sissy and too make sure I didn’t have leukemia like her. Because what parent could possibly bear to create another child with a life killing disease right? Anyways...I have been her mental and physical support. In my short fourteen years of life, I have already donated; three bone marrow transplants, more donations of blood and platelets than I can count on my hand, and when one of her kidneys began to fail, of course I was there, not ready, but forced to donate it. And they have been taking things from my body before I could even walk or talk. When I was first born, they took my umbilical cord blood, one of the main reasons I was created. The doctors used the blood to replace the failing bone marrow of my sister. My body has become a science project, cut, poked and prodded whenever sissy needed me. How am I supposed to die for someone, who is going to die anyways? I know that sounds cruel, I really do, but I’ve learned to love this life and this world of ours. I have hopes and dreams, and more than what expands beyond the walls of this hospital I have learned to call my second home. This letter is my way of expressing myself and using my voice, when I feel I actually cannot. I’m not sure how I am supposed to tell my parents that I am done being their donor child, how I am supposed to tell this to my sister. Is it fair? Am I allowed, or entitled to this? Does this make me a bad person, or a bad sister, if I am willing to potentially let my sister die because I am becoming too selfish too save her anymore? Too whoever is reading this, judge me or hate me, but please just give me an answer. All I need are answers.
-Sarah.
My name is Sarah and I am a donor baby, a saviour sibling for my sister. I was created in a petri dish to save her life. For those of you who don’t know what this is, I’ll give you a quick run down. My parents created me to be a donor for my sister who is dying of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL for short. Scientists used a tacpreimplantation genetic diagnosis, matching my genes to hers to make me a perfect match for my sissy and too make sure I didn’t have leukemia like her. Because what parent could possibly bear to create another child with a life killing disease right? Anyways...I have been her mental and physical support. In my short fourteen years of life, I have already donated; three bone marrow transplants, more donations of blood and platelets than I can count on my hand, and when one of her kidneys began to fail, of course I was there, not ready, but forced to donate it. And they have been taking things from my body before I could even walk or talk. When I was first born, they took my umbilical cord blood, one of the main reasons I was created. The doctors used the blood to replace the failing bone marrow of my sister. My body has become a science project, cut, poked and prodded whenever sissy needed me. How am I supposed to die for someone, who is going to die anyways? I know that sounds cruel, I really do, but I’ve learned to love this life and this world of ours. I have hopes and dreams, and more than what expands beyond the walls of this hospital I have learned to call my second home. This letter is my way of expressing myself and using my voice, when I feel I actually cannot. I’m not sure how I am supposed to tell my parents that I am done being their donor child, how I am supposed to tell this to my sister. Is it fair? Am I allowed, or entitled to this? Does this make me a bad person, or a bad sister, if I am willing to potentially let my sister die because I am becoming too selfish too save her anymore? Too whoever is reading this, judge me or hate me, but please just give me an answer. All I need are answers.
-Sarah.
My Sister's Keeper is a movie based off of the novel written by Jodi Picoult back in 2004. Her original inspiration for the book developed after the Nash Family became the first parents to ever genetically engineer a baby in order to save their daughter Molly. This movie created a lot of controversy between the Nash family and the producers of My Sisters Keeper. However I think this is an extremely accurate visual aid on seeing exactly what both the donor baby or savior sibling goes through, as well as the child with leukemia, and the family of both children as well.