Kate Fitzgerald has had leukemia since she was 2 years old, and her family conceived their next child, Anna, in hopes that her genetic makeup could be used to help Kate stay alive. Now Kate is 16, and Anna 13. Kate is getting worse, and Anna's parents want her to donate a kidney as one last chance for her sister. After years of surgery, trauma, and heartbreak, Anna rebels. She even finds herself a lawyer to plead her case. As the hearing approaches, Kate's condition worsens, their older brother Jesse's problems escalate, and Anna begins to wonder if she is doing the right thing. Jodi Picoult specializes in writing fiction about families in extreme situations. MY SISTER'S KEEPER alternates among several points of view, including the legal and ethical issues involved, as Picoult devotes her considerable novelistic skill to examining this controversial issue.