Man refuses to give sick stepbrother his kidney. AITA?
When this brother is mad about his stepbrother's health, he asks Reddit:
"AITA For not giving stepbrother my kidney?"
Hi, I (F23) and my stepbrother (25) have NEVER gotten along My mom(49) remarried my step-dad(50) after my father passed, step-dad has a son from a previous marriage and he absolutely does not tolerate me, before our parents got together we went to the same school and when I first started gr 8
(we go according to grades in South africa so i think its freshmanyear im America?) he started bullying me, that carried on for 2 whole years he temporarily stopped when he was in gr 10 because he could just torment me in the house since our parents got married.
About a a year ago hes gotten really sick and had started texting me and apologized for the way he treated me when we were young he claims that he was young and dumb, I decided to forgive him just because, recently he texted me and asked to meet at our parents house, so I went and he's father was there...
(my mother apparently had work) they sat me down and started telling me that my "brother" loves me so much and that he only had a little bit left to live and asked if I test to see if I was a match to transfer the kidney,
I had thought about it im my head and realized how good of an opportunity this could be and so I said yes and they scheduled the appointment, the day of the appointment I decided to be a no show.
I told my mom and she was kinda mad that I let it go that far but also happy because apparently they were also trying to guilt trip her into donating I personally feel no Shane and am happy of what I did but apart of me also realizes that I went to far and should of just out right said no and leave them instead of giving them false hope. AITA?
Let's see what readers thought.
banterphobic writes:
NTA. I’m not going to get into the personal issues between you and your stepbrother because they’re really not the issue at hand here. The only thing that matters is the fundamental principle of your own autonomy over your own body...
by definition, you always have the absolute right to decide what is or is not done with your own literal flesh and blood, ESPECIALLY when the medical implications for you are as potentially serious as they are in this case.
So yeah - your right to be in charge of your our own body is so fundamental that you simply cannot be the AH in this situation, whatever decision you make. The other associate personal issues are, at best, secondary to that basic principle.
d2foley writes:
YTA. Not for not giving him a kidney, but for saying yes then not showing up. That could delay him finding one another place and waste the doctors time setting up for a surgery that won't happen.
ellejack writes:
I love both of my siblings and get along well with them and I would be hard pressed to say that I would give them a kidney. It seems cruel, but I have kids, they do not and I don’t want to shorten my life.
Maybe that’s selfish, but it’s my body and my life. I would not give a kidney to a person who treated me like crap and only started being nice when they want something. Why doesn’t his dad donate the kidney? He’s more likely to be a match than two unrelated women. NTA.