# Jahi McMath (D. 2013 & 2018) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 29, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008 "2018-06-29T18:42:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/1 "2018-06-29T18:42:22Z")
[Link](https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/health/jahi-mcmath-brain-dead-teen-death/index.html). Liver failure was the latest cause of death. Assuming you can call a brain-dead person with a beating heart ‘alive’. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/2 "2018-06-29T19:13:29Z")
In the AP article I read the mom insisted her daughter only had a brain injury b/c her religion doesn’t believe in brain death. Then her lawyer said Jahi’s brain death was determined in error, so who knows what to think? It came down to a mom not ready to let her child die and be gone from her forever; understandable, but it’s a poor precedent for ignoring medical evidence in favor of religion. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/3 "2018-06-29T21:00:13Z")
There was more going on than a beating heart. The family could tell the girl was responsive sometimes. A truly brain dead person on life support cannot live for 5 years, because organs will fail. No wonder the hospital wanted her to be dead. They fouled up what should be a simple surgery and were on the hook for her care for the rest of her severely impaired life. Medicine has been reevaluating “persistent vegetative state” and it’s not the death sentence it used to be. Even of someone I loved was brain dead, I would never consent to the torture of removing nutrition and water. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2018, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/4 "2018-07-01T05:04:08Z")
The family _claimed_ she was responsive. I don’t consider them all that reliable. If you’re brain dead, you don’t feel anything – you can’t feel hunger or thirst. During the whole Terri Schiavo mess, I told my family if they ever did anything like that to me, I’d haunt the living shit out of them after died. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2018, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/5 "2018-07-01T06:30:01Z")
I fear that the parents were milking the whole thing for publicity, and that the girl’s life and death were side issues to them. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/6 "2018-07-01T15:15:13Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > I fear that the parents were milking the whole thing for publicity, and that the girl’s life and death were side issues to them. That’s an odd fear to have. For whom or what do you fear in this instance? Other parents will force their kids into brain injuries for attention? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/7 "2018-07-01T17:48:41Z")
There was a long article in the New Yorker a few months ago about this case. As usual with New Yorker articles, it went into a great deal of depth, including the history of using “brain death” as the definition of death. Surprising to me, there are a lot of subtleties to this that are still not well understood. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2018, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/8 "2018-07-01T17:53:09Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > That’s an odd fear to have. For whom or what do you fear in this instance? Other parents will force their kids into brain injuries for attention? 😕 It’s just an expression. Like if someone says, “I fear you’re too late.” I don’t think he meant it literally. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/9 "2018-07-01T21:42:25Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > That’s an odd fear to have. For whom or what do you fear in this instance? Other parents will force their kids into brain injuries for attention? 😕 I’m afraid it’s just an expression, common enough in the US now and in the past, but not one to be taken literally. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2018, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/10 "2018-07-02T03:59:19Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > It’s just an expression. Like if someone says, “I fear you’re too late.” > > I don’t think he meant it literally. :rolleyes: > [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > I’m afraid it’s just an expression, common enough in the US now and in the past, but not one to be taken literally. I’m well aware. I wanted his hyperbole to look as silly to him as it did to me when he accused a grieving family of being opportunistic attention whores. It’s quite in character w/ this poster. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2018, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/11 "2018-07-02T06:15:09Z")
Yeah, but if you’ve read the history of the case, he’s not entirely wrong. In fact, I’d say he’s right on the money. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2018, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/12 "2018-07-02T11:28:29Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I’m well aware. I wanted his hyperbole to look as silly to him as it did to me when he accused a grieving family of being opportunistic attention whores. It’s quite in character w/ this poster. Okay. It didn’t come across that way, to me at least. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/13 "2018-07-02T17:14:15Z")
It can be dicey trying to assume what people are actually thinking, but my personal believe is that, similar to the Terri Schiavo case, that the poor deluded parents truly believed that with the ‘proper treatment’ that she could have improved. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jahi-mcmath-d-2013-2018/817008/14 "2018-07-02T17:23:00Z")
Lots of background [here](http://www.docbastard.net/2018/06/finally-over.html?m=1).