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Essay / Social and moral issues associated with genetic selection technology and vitro fertilization as described in My Sister's Keeper
The film My Sister's Keeper, based on a bestselling 2004 novel by Jodi Picoult, presents an extreme example of in vitro fertilization technology and genetic selection to confront the moral and social issues associated with these reproductive tools. Anna, the protagonist of the story, is brought into the world as "her sister's keeper", with the express purpose of donating her body parts to cure her cancer-stricken sister. Although the author's narrative is designed to reflect the moral dilemmas posed by the abuse of reproductive technologies, these issues can be analyzed even more deeply from a Catholic perspective. Such a view of the abuse of technology that takes place in the film is not only about legal rights over the body, but also enters into the realm of maintaining human dignity from the moment of conception. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay In vitro fertilization itself is not directly challenged by the author or his characters. However, the Catholic Church finds the very practice of implanting a fertilized egg “in glass” problematic. Anna was conceived outside of her mother's womb so that the sperm and egg could be genetically manipulated. Removing these sex cells from the parents' bodies before uniting them in a new life is problematic because it removes the intimacy of the marital act which is naturally designed to produce new life. A child is a gift and must be born through an intrinsically loving act of altruism, not through a synthetic scientific method. From the beginning, Anna's design method cannot be morally acceptable. Although not mentioned in the film, it is likely that several other zygotes were produced and then discarded during the process of creating Anna's zygote, or even implanted in the uterus and then aborted as embryos. These acts of killing which often accompany in vitro fertilization make it morally unacceptable in the eyes of the Church. Anna's parents also didn't have the good idea of having a second child. Not only did they not create Anna out of love, but they also didn't intend to. The suggestion to have a second child through IVF came from the first child's oncologist, who could not guarantee compatible biological material in time to save his patient. This seemed an attractive option to concerned parents, and their concern with helping their child heal blinded them to any moral implications of creating a child for "spare parts." Nevertheless, the reason for Anne's conception did not conform to the Church's definition of the purpose of life: to bring about a marriage. Anna's dignity was not respected here, as she was not introduced as an individual but as a genetic match with her sister. Anna's method of selecting traits is also morally questionable. Genetic testing may be justified in cases of prevention of serious disorders in the affected child, but not to ensure that the child is compatible with a sibling. Anna was designed so that her kidneys, bone marrow, blood and white blood cells were perfectly suited for transfer into her sister's body. The traits were specifically selected from the genomes of its parents. This does not adequately address the human dignity that Anna deserves as an individual. Unaltered, her new genome would have been a unique combination of traits that would have made her a different person than Anna was designed to match her sister..