The Ethical Dilemna

I recently finished reading a book that Alyson and Jason sent me. It is called "My Sister's Keeper" and is written by Jodi Picoult. It is the story of a family who discover that their 2 year old daughter has a rare form of leukemia, and intentionally have a 'designer baby' in order to ensure a donor match for their older child. The designer baby, a daughter, was only intented to donate cord cells, however over the years, is expected to donate other cells, and bone marrow over and over. At the point where the story opens, the second daughter, now 13 years old, is being expected to donate a kidney to her sister.

It is a great novel that I would recommend to anyone. As the reader, you become angry and wonder how a parent can force a child (the designer child) to undergo invasive medical procedures over and over again that is of no benefit to her. The book however has promted me to think about what I would do as a parent if I were in that situation. When you see one child critcally ill, would you not do anything you could to save that child? However, would you force, coerce or even expect your other child to undergo painful medical procedures to save their sibling? How do you choose between your children? It is not something I would ever want to confront because I'm afraid that no matter what decision was made, it would not be the right one.

James' Visit Part II

So........when we last left the story of James' visit, he and I had gone hicking up through Johnstone Canyon in Banff National Park. Here are pictures from the rest of his visit:

On Friday, we went to a Calgary Stampeders Football Game. We were all dressed up in our raingear 'cause it was raining and cold. We had a great time though.

It was so cold that James wore a winter toque..........IN JUNE!!!!!

The rain let up and we had a beautiful full rainbow right over the stadium. Oh, and to top it all off, the Stampeders won.

James took my bike and camera out a few times for a ride. He used the timer to take this one of himself.

On Saturday we went to Stephen and Gayle's for a BBQ. The kids were so excirted to see James.

Kathryn and James with one of the puppies

All the cousins got toegther to do the PP dance

Part three of the visit to be posted.........