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She is one of hockey players. If she donates her kidney, she has to leave her hobby. Besides those reasons, Anna really wants to be medically emancipated as
soon as possible because if it is not stopped, it will never end. “‘When you complain because someone’s sticking a needle into you for
the tenth time, it’s considered standard operating procedure. All the adults look around with fake smiles and tells each other that no one voluntarily
asks for more needles.’ I blow my nose into a Kleenex. ‘The kidney – that’s just today. Tomorrow it’ll be something else. It’s always something
else.’” 86. Knowing the processes and the consequences, Anna is afraid to do the
process. She does not want to get hurt any longer, so she rejects the mother’s wish. It is liken what is stated by Maslow as cited in Gleitman, “…, people always
want to get away from something pain, hunger, sexual tension rather than to gain something positive” 732. Moreover, Anna is a child. A child is often motivated
by safety needs. It is like what is stated by Maslow, as cited in Feist and Feist “Children, however, are more often motivated by safety needs because they live
with such threats ….” 281. Safety needs is including physical security, stability, dependency, protection and freedom from threatening forces.
Anna’s pain during more than 13 years motivates her to do an action to stop it. She does not want to be hurt any longer. The treatment and the pain she
has experienced make her to lose the insecure feeling. Through this action, Anna expects to satisfy her safety needs.
c. To have her right back
My Sister’s Keeper novel discusses the struggle of a child to have her right
back. It is told that Anna is a little girl who files a lawsuit against her own parents.
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She expects to have the right to her own body, since she feels that her mother imprisons her right. She knows that she was born to be her sister’s perfect match.
At the beginning, what is needed is only her umbilical cord. However, since a cancer is a chronic illness that is difficult to be recovered, she has to continue her
donation. As time goes by, the condition becomes worst and worst. Kate needs lot of organs transplant that is harvested from her perfect match, Anna. On the other
hand, Anna is growing up and she starts to question about her identity and her role in this life. She feels that she does not get her right, especially in relation with her
body. She knows that Kate is the only reason why she was born in the world. She knows about her background, but she is a human being who was born with basic
human right. She has privacy and right as well. Hart 1973 defines right as the protected exercise of choice, as cited in
http:www.ohchr.orgENIssuesPagesWhatareHumanRights.aspx. It means that having a right is having a power to enforce the other’s duty to provide the need.
Everyone in this world is born with basic human right. Everyone has hisher own right. Even, human right is guaranteed and protected in all nations in the world.
Children are also human being. What makes them different from the adult is the right to do something. Some activities deserve for adults but not for
children. For example, children in a very young age are not permitted to smoke, to buy alcohol, to drive, to marry or to vote in the general election. Although they
are not allowed to do those actions, they also have right. However, their right it is very limited.
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In some cases, children are incapable in making any choices. They are too young to have choice because their mental are not totally developed at those ages.
Therefore, children need someone to be their behalf. Parents, who are considered as the closest relatives of the children, usually become their behalf. Parents, as the
representatives of the children, can take a choice for the children. In this novel, Anna’s mother becomes Anna’s behalf in exercising a choice in medical
treatment. Anna’s mother takes the decision for Anna to donate her parts of body for her sister. She has the authority to make a choice for Anna since Anna is still
very young to have her own decision. Her mother makes Anna’s body to be harvested whenever Kate needs it.
However, something goes wrong in this case. Her mother never asks her permission whether she is willing to donor her part of body or not. When Kate
needs something to support the work of her body, the mother directly takes it from Anna. Procedurally, there is no mistake beside that decision because the parents
authorize a child who is under-aged under 18 years old to control their medical treatment. The requirement says so. The consideration behind the requirement
argues that parent is the one who knows the best thing for the children. In addition, children under age are considered as immature creatures that disable to
take decision. Therefore, parents have the responsibility to do the best for their children. Moreover, children’s mental development is not yet totally worked out.
Children may not take an important decision without parent’s guidance. However, having a duty to be children’s guidance, some parents make use it as a right to
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control their children. Not all parents are strict with this principal. Some parents give lots of freedom for their children.
Anna’s parents give different treatment to their children. Anna’s brother, Jesse, gets lots of freedom. It is not because the parents intentionally want to give
those all freedom, but they seems to ignore him. He grows up becomes a bad boy. Jesse has the right to have freedom, but he does not have the right to be loved by
his parents. His love needs is unsatisfied. Different from Jesse, Anna seems never get freedom. Anna’s mother
authorizes her life since she was baby. Her freedom is imprisoned. Moreover, Anna gets tired to live in the shadow of her sister’s illness. When entering the
adolescence time, she is brave to break it because she really wants to have her freedom. She wants to do what she wants to do. Fortunately, she gets the
opportunity to have her right back. One time, Kate asks her help to stop all the medical treatment because
Kate is getting sick off all the treatment that she has done for more than thirteen years. From that, Anna gets a chance to reach her right back. She is motivated to
be medically emancipated. Through this decision, she will save the freedom of both of them. Kate will be free from all medical treatments that hurt her much,
while Anna will get freedom to be medically emancipated and to have her right back. Anna is optimist that her dream will come true someday, but she knows that
the way to reach her dream will be difficult to pass. She has to stand for the trial. Moreover, she has to face her mother’s opposition. Besides, she needs to struggle
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against her own internal conflict. In one hand, she wants to have freedom but on the other side of it, she is afraid to lose her lovely sister as well.
Before she files the lawsuit, she is an obedient child. She will do whatever her mother asks her to do. However, since she is motivated to change her boring
and unjust life she braves to fight against her own mother. She defends her right by herself because no one will struggle for her. After facing lots of difficult
situations and hard moments, she reaps the fruit. Finally, she gets her right back. The final judgment wins her lawsuit.
The analysis above shows that Anna does not get the right toward her own body. Her right is imprisoned inside her duty to be her sister’s keeper. That is why
she wants to have her right back. What motivates her to do the action is for fulfilling her esteem needs that is not satisfied yet. As what is sated in Feist and
Feist, Maslow states that esteem needs including “desire for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for mastery and competence, for confidence in the
face of the world, and for independence and freedom” 283. Anna wants to be her herself, to be fully developed her potential, to be more confident, to be more
independent, and to get freedom in her life. That is why she is motivated to have right and freedom.
2. Extrinsic Motivation
