The Promise of Stardust
By Priscilla Sibley
Matt had known Elle since he was two and a half years old. He was sitting on his Mom's lap when they placed her in their arms. Until then he had never spoken a word but he called her Peep. Later they would marry. He was her whole world. They tried having children but each pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage. She had a disease that made it almost impossible to carry a baby to term. In fact, she had given birth to two premature babies both of which did not survive.
Then the unthinkable happened Elle had an accident. Not just an accident a catastrophic accident leaving her brain dead. The irony, Matt was a neurosurgeon and all his education and training could not save his wife. Just as they were to take her off of life support so that she could be an organ donor, they discovered she was pregnant, eight weeks pregnant to be exact. Matt's Mom who knew Elle all her life felt that Elle would not want to be kept on life support and she said there was a living will to back this up, Matt felt differently. He felt his wife given the circumstances would have wanted to try and have this baby living will be damned. So he wanted to keep her alive long enough for the fetus to become viable and then they would take the baby and remove Elle from life support. Given the fact that she was brain dead and given the fact that she had been unable to have a successful pregnancy while she was alive, was it fair to keep her alive to be a human incubator for this baby whose odds of making it were not good under the current or any other circumstances? And what about other member of Matt’s family, is it worth alienating them and ruining relationships he had with them?
This book covers a whole spectrum of issues that I could talk and argue about for hours but I won’t because you should read the book and form your own opinion. It is certainly a book that evokes many emotions. I found myself sad, mad, and outraged just to name a few. Read the book. Tell me what you think.
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