The Real Life Story Behind ‘My Sister’s Keeper’
With the recent release of the film version of Jodi Piccoult’s My Sister’s Keeper, starring Abigail Breslin, Cameron Diaz, and Medium’s Sofia Vassilieva, the family that inspired the story is speaking out.
The story is about a couple who conceives a second child to save the life of their first daughter who is battling with leukemia. The real life family behind the novel, the Nashes, were the first couple to use Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) to create an embryo that could save a sibling’s life. They got help from a fertility specialist to select a healthy embryo that was a genetic match for their sick daughter Molly. This would be Molly’s little brother Adam. The cord blood from Adam’s placenta was used for a blood transfusion that saved Molly’s life. Later a second embryo from the couple became the couple’s third child, Delaine.
“I appreciate the public discussion of the ethical issues raised by the book, and now the movie,” said Molly’s mom, Lisa Nash. “But it’s important to remember Jodi Picoult’s story is in many ways a worst case scenario and our reality was one of miracles and hope.”
“We stress to people that the book is fiction and that our family is reality,” explains Jack Nash. “The reality is that because of amazing reproductive medicine advances, we have been able to have a family. Without the science, Molly would have died and we wouldn’t have tried to have any other children for fear they’d die of FA too. That’s the reality.”
Today all the Nash children are thriving … and so are the book and film, My Sister’s Keeper.
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