On people declared "brain dead" and why that shouldn't be an off-on switch

The sad saga of  Jahi McMath continues.  What a horrible fate for a vibrant young girl.  How I wish she would make a recovery and prove the doctors who consider themselves to be mini-gods, totally wrong. 

Maia Szalavitz writing at Time's HealthLand:
....Thirteen-year-old Jahi McMath was declared brain dead after complications arising from a tonsillectomy, raising new questions about how we define brain death, and whether it’s time to revise our understanding of when brains can be revived, and when they can’t.

During her surgery, Jahi went into cardiac arrest, and a lack of oxygen to the brain that resulted in her brain death. She is being kept alive by a ventilator, but according to laws in all 50 states in the U.S., brain dead patients are considered deceased. Her doctors, and a judge in California, where the teen remains at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, concluded that McMath’s brain is unlikely to recover but her parents are fighting the hospital’s plans to disconnect her from life support equipment.

In cases like this— or those like the now eight-year-long coma endured by former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and the skiing injury that has left Formula One champion Michael Schumaker comatose for nearly a week— everyone wants bright lines. We want to know if the person is conscious and suffering— and whether he or she can make a meaningful recovery. The rare but real cases where people do awaken from what doctors have labeled as brain death or irreversible coma only make the questions, and the need for answers, all the more urgent.

But the science of consciousness is far from black and white............



Steven Ertelt writing at LifeNews:
Attorney for Jahi McMath’s Family Defends Protecting Her Right to Live.  The controversy that brewed nationally weeks ago over Jahi McMath, who was left in a precarious medical state following a botched tonsillectomy, sparked controversy within event pro-life circles.
Jahi was transferred from Oakland Children’s Hospital January 5 after a protracted legal battle between the family and the hospital which declared Jahi brain dead December 12 and sought to remove her from a ventilator.

Although the hospital maintains McMath is “brain dead,” her mother and family say she is alive following a tonsillectomy gone awry that has left her in an incapacitated state since early December. The family in the case says the hospital has been starving Jahi for three weeks.
Christopher Dolan, the attorney who took up for the parents by acting as their pro bono representative while they fought the hospital to provide adequate care and food and water for their daughter, has an opinion column in the Los Angeles Times today explaining why he took the case. Dolan’s comments, without further ado, are quite compelling and give good food for thought.

From the column:

I am the attorney who answered a call for help from Jahi McMath’s family in December. I have represented them for free — starting 10 hours before the ......