My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

I have really been in a reading funk lately. I started about four different books last week and couldn't make it past about page 20 in any of them. So, on a quiet Friday night, I decided to turn to an old favorite - Jodi Picoult. Picoult usually writes about adolescents (I actually think this one was in the Young Adult section at the library), deals with family turmoil, and has a very easy to get into writing style. She reminds me a lot of Chris Bohjalian. My Sister's Keeper is about a young woman named Kate who is suffering from a rare form of leukemia. She is diagnosed at age 2 and when her older brother does not turn out to be a genetic match for purposes of bone marrow donation, Kate's parents decide to get pregnant again - through invitro fertilization so that they can control the genetic make-up of their new child, Anna. Anna is a perfect match and from the day she is born, she is poked and prodded with needles and undergoes painful operations, all in the hopes of saving her sister's life. But, when her sister needs a kidney transplant, Anna takes a stand and hires an attorney to fight for her medical emancipation. Her mother is horrified, accusing Anna of signing Kate's death warrant. But, Anna's father is unsure, believing it's time they let their daughter take control of her own body. As Kate waits precariously in her hospital bed for the court's ruling, Anna is torn between her love for her sister and her family, and her desire to be seen as something more than simply a vessel for harvesting. This is a painful read - there are the obvious bio-ethics question about creating a child like Anna in the first place - and then the questions of how far one will go to save a child - even at the expense of the children who aren't suffering from catastrophic illnesses. I found the descriptions of the medical procedures a bit too graphic, but overall, this was a thought-provoking and engaging read.