saviour siblings?

[christophem]

So what is it with saviour siblings? I knew what they were, mainly from My Sister's Keeper which my sister (of course) kept pushing upon me to read, but I didn't know there was an official term for it, or that people actually DID have children whose primary purpose on Earth is to provide bodily materials for a sick relative. In my opinion this is

Comments

[sorakaji]

sometimes it is only for something like blood or a kidney and then the person is safe. even though i haven't read My Sister's Keeper that sounds like a situation in which the older one continually needed stuff from the younger girl. It would really suck to know that one's soul purpose in life according to their parents is to give body parts to someone else.

[christophem]

I don't see parents going through the trouble to make a "perfect match" child only for a one-time donation. Apparently they first need to sift through embryos to find the best match.

Yes, that's the story of My Sister's Keeper. The older sister has leukemia, I think, and the younger sister is brought up being taught that she is alive to save her sister. Eventually, the parents ask too much and the girl refuses. But it's horrible imagining the moral strain such a situation would put on you: on one hand, you love your sibling more than anything, on the other, it is YOUR life and you have never had any control over it or what your parents demand and take from your body. The scary part is thinking, would I go through that to save my brother's life? I don't think any child should be put in that position.

(yeah, I do tend to go out on a tangent sometimes, sorry!)

[sorakaji]

haha, well, obviously not kidneys like i said. kidneys don't depend on someone's genes at all. XD

but yeah, i'm wondering if i would go through that to save my sister. well, obviously i would because it's not as if i was born in order to save her (i'm actually older, too, anyway).

[christophem]

I have a younger sister as well. I would probably give something up for her as well in a heartbeat, because I love her, but I should still have a CHOICE. I haven't been engineered for that purpose. The legality of saviour siblings baffles me, though.