My Sister's Keeper

The term “designer babies” was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in the same year My Sister’s Keeper was published—2004. At the time, the term was defined as zygotes tested for traits and characteristics before implantation to ensure a desired result. The first designer baby was conceived in 1996. This child was considered a designer baby because her parents had their zygotes tested to ensure they gave birth to a girl, as they already had two boys. An article about this child was released in 1999, creating a great deal of controversy as society began to discuss the possibility of parents being able to choose their child’s eye color, hair color, intelligence level, and athletic ability. Despite this debate, research continued. For example, embryonic researcher Yury Verlinsky developed a process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) that allows parents to choose zygotes that don’t contain certain genes that could lead to debilitating or fatal disorders.

In 2000, the first designer baby born via the PGD process was Adam Nash. Before being implanted into his mother, Adam was tested for the genetic disease Fanconi anemia, a disease his older sister, Molly, suffered from, as well as genetic markers that made him a good match for Molly. After his birth, Adam’s cord blood was transplanted into Molly to treat her Fanconi anemia. Due to the transplant, Adam was also considered a savior sibling, a sibling conceived and born for the purpose of providing an older sibling with life-saving blood, tissue, and/or organs. Adam’s transplant allowed his sister to go into remission, and, as of 2017, she is still alive and thriving. The Nash family went on to have a third child using PGD to ensure this child was also free of the Fanconi anemia gene.

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the concept of designer babies. In regard to choosing superficial features for babies such as eye color and hair color, bioethicists have expressed concern that there will be a disconnect between wealthy parents who can afford these procedures and those who cannot. When it comes to savior siblings, there is controversy surrounding them being vulnerable to psychological damage due to medical procedures and the idea of being born for a purpose rather than being wanted by their parents.

In My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult has taken inspiration from headlines that would have been prevalent during her time of writing. The real-life Nash family began making headlines around 2001, three years before the novel was published. However, it is important to note that PGD was not available in 1990 when Anna would have been conceived. Picoult delves into the controversy surrounding savior siblings, portraying Anna as a child who is born to save her sister and has to handle the psychological weight of being made responsible for the life of another person while still a child herself.