My sister’s keeper S(Curmudgeon Films 2009) Director: Nick Cassavetes, 109 minutes.

"I was born for a very specific purpose. I wasn’t the result of a cheap bottle of wine or a full moon or the heat of the moment. I was born because a scientist managed to hook up my mother’s eggs and my father’s sperm and come up with a specific combination of precious genetic material."

This comment by a teenaged Anna Fitzgerald sums up the fundamental nature of this frighteningly thought-provoking piece of art. My sister’s keeper peeks into family dynamics, marvelously capturing the parent-child bond. Based on Jodi Picoult’s novel by the same name, it traces the life of Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) who lives in California with her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian Fitzgerald (Jason Patric), brother Jesse ( Evan Ellingson), and her sister Kate( Sofia Vassilieva).

When Kate is diagnosed with promyelocytic leukemia at the age of two, the peaceful and joyful life of this family takes an ugly turn. Following the unofficial advice of the doctor, the parents decide to conceive another child exclusively with the intention of saving Kate’s life. Anna, an allogenic donor, is genetically engineered to be a perfect match for her elder sister. She undergoes innumerable surgeries and donates genetic material, including blood and bone marrow, to keep her sister alive. Because of her sister’s dependence on her, Anna is unable to live the life she wants. The parents make Kate the epicentre of their lives, and struggle each day to keep her alive, often overlooking the other two children in the house.

Kate suffers from relapses despite infusions of stem cells from her sister’s umbilical cord, as well as platelets and bone marrow. When she goes into renal failure, the parents want Anna to donate a kidney to Kate. Having spent her life in the shadow of her elder sister’s illness, the time comes when Anna starts questioning her own existence and the purpose of her life. Tired of being a living donor for her sister, she does the most improbable – she hires a "91% successful lawyer", Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin), to get her rights to her own body. She confidently files a lawsuit against her own parents demanding "medical emancipation" – the right of a minor to decide on her own medical treatment. She asks the court to take this authority away from her parents.

This evokes sundry reactions. Anna’s father understands her need to be heard, but her mother – a lawyer turned homemaker is determined to lengthen Kate’s life and moves to fight the battle in the court. As the legal case proceeds, a speech in the courtroom twists the reality of the case, bringing to light the most decisive part of the movie.

Underlining the physical and psychological ordeal faced by a family to keep a sick child alive, My sister’s keeper brings to the forefront several ethical and moral dilemmas. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to keep one’s child from dying? In this quest, how ethical is it to infringe the rights of the other child? Is it ethical to focus on one child at the cost of neglecting the other children? Is it ethical to bring a life into the world with a vested stake? Under what conditions, should medical emancipation be granted? Should it be granted at all? Is there an appropriate age to seek rights on one’s own body? Ethical issues regarding genetic engineering of humans and distributive justice also emerge. (Treatment in medical establishments undertaking work of this nature is costly and not accessible to the majority of people.)

The film underlines the pivotal issue of medical emancipation of minors. Obstacles faced in organ transplantation are also succinctly mirrored when the family pressurises Anna to donate her kidney to her elder sister.

This movie is a string of scenes brilliantly shot and woven together by admirable acting: when love sprouts in Kate’s life even as she is undergoing treatment, Kate walking down the stairs of her house to go for a party, Kate’s visit to the beach, the proceedings of the case in the courtroom… such scenes will stay long in my memory. Nick Cassavetes has successfully dealt with a complicated subject, reflecting the different points of views thoughtfully. Powerful dialogues add magic to the tale. "There is no shame in dying," says the judge in a conversation. Good editing, the topicality of the subject, a harmonious soundtrack and a distinguished cast with well-defined characters all make this a moving film.