Ethical Dilemma In The Memory Keeper's Daughter By Kim Edwards

For this paper I read the novel The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, this novel is told in the span of 25 years, it is told by two characters David and Caroline, who have different lives but are connect through one past decision. The story starts in 1964, when a blizzard happens causing the main character, Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. During the delivery the son named Paul is fine but the daughter named Phoebe has something wrong with her. The doctor realizes that the daughter has Down syndrome, he is shocked and age remembers his own childhood when his sister was always sick, her dyeing at an early and how that effected his mother. He didn’t want that to happen to his wife, so David told the nurse to bring Phoebe to an institution, so that his wife wouldn’t suffer. The nurse, Caroline didn’t think this was right, but brings Phoebe to the institution anyways. Once Caroline sees the institution in an awful state she leaves with the baby and
These ethical dilemmas were a big part of the story novel and caused most of the conflict that arose in the novel. One of the ethical dilemmas was David telling the nurse to bring his daughter to an Institution. By making that decision to send his daughter away based on his past experience with his sick sister and assumption about how the future will be. This connects to the ethical topic of techniques of neutralization by Joseph Heath. He uses an excuse to prove that his decision wasn’t unethical when it really was. According to the Denial of responsibility technique, he believed that he had no choice in sending Phoebe away, David saw it as the only option because he was so focus on his past experience. He imagined what Phoebe’s life would be like and the likely toll of caring for her would have on the family. Caused him to see Phoebe as a threat, with only one option to solve the