KidneyTalk Podcast
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June 6th: Jodi Picoult - Best Selling Author
Jodi Picoult, a best-selling novelist and author of “My Sister’s Keeper,” the
story of a young woman conceived in order to be a blood cell and tissue donor to
her older sister. The young woman balks, however, when asked to donate a kidney.
The Personal Side of Organ Donation
Welcome to the premiere of KidneyTalk!
On this week’s show, bestselling author Jodi Picoult talks with Lori Hartwell
and Stephen Furst about the personal side of organ donation. Jodi is a household
name among the literary set, having risen to the top of the New York Times
Bestseller List with novels such as “The Tenth Circle,” “Vanishing Act,” and “My
Sister’s Keeper.”
“My Sister’s Keeper” is the story of a girl brought into this world to be an
exact donor match for her ailing sister. Since birth, the girl has donated blood
cells, stem cells, and bone marrow. At age 13, she’s told her sister needs a
kidney transplant. But tiring of giving parts of her body to keep her sister
alive, she hires a lawyer to sue her parents for medical emancipation.
“It’s an important issue,” says Jodi, with regard to the lengths that people
will go when a loved one’s life is at stake. “Especially when we talk about
transplants and stem cells, we’re often taking a foray into the political. And
what people tend to forget is that there are thousands of families every day
dealing with these decisions at an emotional level, not a theoretical one. And
it’s a lot harder to blame people for the decisions they make when you take it
down to that personal level.”
Jodi writes from personal experience, having had a child with a chronic illness
(as well as an aunt currently on dialysis). She brings out the family dynamics
that come into play when an illness focuses disproportionate attention on one
sibling versus another.
“Sometimes when a child is ill,” says Jodi, “we wind up saying things that we
wish we hadn’t said to our other children. Because when one child takes
precedence, everything else falls by the wayside. And we like to say we love all
of our children equally. But what we really mean is, we know one of them is
going to take precedence, and what we hope is that in the long run it all evens
out.”
Both Lori and Stephen attest to the fact that chronic illness impacts the entire
family, which can lead to psychological problems among siblings, parents, or
one’s spouse. And all agree that organ donation is the ultimate way to make a
difference in someone’s life, particularly in the life of a loved one. Says
Jodi: “The donors wind up becoming superheroes to the other family members....
[They] wind up with the other family members almost in awe of them.”
About 65,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a kidney transplant, including
about 800 children. But only 1 in 5 will receive a kidney this year. About half
of those kidneys will come from living donors.
Information on kidney transplantation, for donors and recipients, can be found
on the Renal Support Network website,
www.RSNhope.org.
Additional sites include:
• American Organ Transplant Association:
www.aotaonline.org
• Children’s Organ Transplant Association:
http://www.cota.org
• Coalition on Donation:
www.donatelife.net
• National Foundation for Transplants:
www.transplants.org
• National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases:
www.niddk.nih.gov
• National Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Network:
www.nationalmottep.org
• National Transplant Assistance Fund:
www.transplantfund.org
• Transplant Recipients International Organization:
www.trioweb.org
• TransWeb: www.transweb.org
• United Network for Organ Sharing:
www.transplantliving.org
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
www.organdonor.gov
“My Sister’s Keeper” can be found at Barnes & Noble and other bookstores
nationwide. You can also visit
www.JodiPicoult.com.
June 6, 2006
