希臘媳婦勇闖歐洲 (Athens-Taipei)

最近的一本閱讀是"My Sister's Keeper" (by Jodi Picoult)
中文書名叫"姊姊的守護者"
知道這本書有一段時間了
它一直是誠品排行榜中榜上有名的書
我在看這本書之前
一點都不知道這本書到底在說啥
想說既然蟬聯好幾個月的暢銷書
應該是真的不錯看
基於要看書就盡量看原著作的語言
所以我就選了英文版的來看
沒想到一開始看就停不下來的看下去
果然是本好書

這本書的第一章一開始的角色選定者是Anna, 一個13歲的小女孩
他的姊姊(Kate)在很小的時候就發現得了Leukemia (白血病)
Anna的出生給了家裡很大的希望
他是他姊姊的donor,姊姊需要他的臍帶血,他的骨髓細胞來活下去
到了Anna 13歲時, 他的姊姊需要腎臟移植
Anna的爸媽從來沒有認真的詢問過Anna是否真的要把腎臟捐給姊姊
Anna尋找律師,對父母提出告訴
這....不代表Anna不愛他的姐姐,不愛他的父母,憎恨他的父母
Anna的訴訟...帶出對捐贈器官者的尊重與最高的敬意
在書中最最最後~~~
也看到Anna提出的法律訴訟
也代表了他的姊姊Kate對生命的掙扎
Kate不願這樣的痛苦的活在世上,也不願愛他的人為了她痛苦不已

器官的捐贈,骨髓的捐贈
都需要捐贈者的同意而執行
在醫學倫理道德上
我們是需要捐贈者的同意來進行醫學移植
但是,在Anna的個案中
我不禁的開始想到在這樣的社會中
確實有些父母在他們其中一個孩子得到Leukemia時
他們用他們另一個孩子,或是生一個孩子,來當作Donor (捐贈者)
雖然這些Donor是孩子,但我們是否應該也把他當個完整的個體
好好的詢問他們的意願
而不是由父母自行決定簽署骨髓或器官捐贈來救另一個孩子
一個有生命的個體者,縱使是血緣及親的家屬,或是複製人
當我們需要器官捐贈時,是否應該好好的考慮當事者的心情與想法

生命是可貴的
每一個生命得來不易
在病危時,我也可以理解拯救生命的重要
尤其是我自己也是個從事醫學方面的研究者
我的使命也是為了讓生病的人的到好的預防或治療
但.....在這樣的過程中
我們的確要好好省思及尊重他人的生命

這本好書真的是值得推薦
很幸運的台灣可以買到中文版喔
想看這本好書,又害怕看英文的讀者
可以看中文版的啦!!

作者Jodi Picoult在書中的用字
除去醫學專有名詞外
其實非常容易上手
有興趣或有膽量的讀者想閱讀英文小說
不彷試試看這本書喔


p.s 1: 這本書裡的英文本有很多醫學專有名詞,看起來特別得心應手,在我看了很多本英文小書中,就屬這本最上手啦!! 學醫的還是離不該醫學領域....哈哈哈!!
p.s 2: Jodi Picoult的官方網站 http://www.jodipicoult.com/
p.s 3: 這個作家出了很多本書,我也從誠品訂了一些,有機會看了他其他的作品,再來介紹給大家喔!! ^_^
p.s 4: 終於看完這本書了,很感傷,很特別的結局!!容我賣關子吧~~真的很想知道結局的讀者,要自己去看喔~~

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以下是Jodi Picoult官方網站對這本書的介紹

A Short Synopsis

    Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? 


About  Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult, 40, is the bestselling author of fourteen novels: Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992), Harvesting the Heart (1994), Picture Perfect (1995); Mercy (1996), The Pact (1998); Keeping Faith (1999), Plain Truth (2000), Salem Falls (2001), Perfect Match (2002), Second Glance (2003), My Sister's Keeper (2004), Vanishing Acts (2005),The Tenth Circle (2006) and her newest novel, Nineteen Minutes. In 2003 she was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction.

She was born and raised —happily—on Long Island… something that she believed at first was a detriment to a girl who wanted to be a writer. “It took me a while to realize that I actually DID have something to write about,” Picoult says. “That solid core of family, and the knotty tangle of relationships, which I keep coming back to in my books.”

Picoult studied creative writing with Mary Morris at Princeton, and had two short stories published in Seventeen magazine while still a student. Realism - and a profound desire to be able to pay the rent - led Picoult to a series of different jobs following her graduation: as a technical writer for a Wall Street brokerage firm, as a copywriter at an ad agency, as an editor at a textbook publisher, and as an 8th grade English teacher - before entering Harvard to pursue a master's in education. She married Tim Van Leer, whom she had known at Princeton, and it was while she was pregnant with her first child that she wrote her first novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale.

Picoult says, “I found out it was going to be published just before my son was born, and I had this completely idealistic vision of him sitting at my feet, cooing, while I continued to write books. Needless to say, it didn't quite work out that way.” Her struggle to balance motherhood and her own career formed, in part, the basis for her second novel, Harvesting the Heart. For a few years, she was either delivering a book or a baby. Now, she's happy to be prolific solely in her writing… and admits wholeheartedly that she moonlights as a writer, but she's really a mom. “It took me a while to find the balance,” Picoult says, “but I'm a better mother because I have my writing… and I'm a better writer because of the experiences I've had as a parent that continually remind me how far we are willing to go for the people we love the most.”

In 2003 she was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction. She has also been the recipient of the Margaret Alexander Edwards Award for Young Adult Fiction; the Book Browse Diamond Award for novel of the year; a lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction from the Romance Writers of America; and Waterstone’s Author of the Year in the UK. Most recently, she was asked by DC Comics to pen the Wonder Woman comic book series – her five issues will hit newsstands beginning in March 2007.

She and Tim and their three children live in Hanover, New Hampshire with two Springer spaniels, a rabbit, two donkeys, and the occasional Holstein.