I just finished reading Jodi Picoult's my sister's keeper. Not my favourite author, but she does write about gripping issues. It is about a girl conceived by her parents and chosen out of several embryos to save the life of her sister who has leukemia, and the consequences for her and the entire family. While about a specific medical ethical conundrum, which was of interest in itself (I end up having problems with throwing away the other embryos, but can understand the motivation of the parents), it raises questions more generally for me about how we balance the needs of the different children in the family. Obviously, if one child is ill or has some other special need, that will affect the others greatly. But in any family, I think, this balancing act occurs. For us at the moment, Sparky our eldest, often has to be aware of the needs of the younger Owl (for instance by being quiet when he sleeps). How much of this is good for a child, as it teaches being other centred, and when does it start to affect the child negatively, for example unwittingly telling a child they are less important than the other?
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