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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPhoto of teenager Jahi McMath, brain dead more than two years, ignites life support debate
http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article67403207.htmlsnip
She looks so peaceful her eyes closed, every hair in place, her head resting on a fluffy white pillow, her mother at her side.
But California teenager Jahi McMath has been brain dead for more than two years. And a photo of her shared over the weekend on Facebook has reignited public discussion about life support.
Keep seeing posts declaring that the family just accept she is gone and unplug, but is she? wrote one Facebook user. Seems like this could be a big case to watch. Could change definitions of what is dead.
The photo of Jahi and her mother, Nailah Winkfield, was published on a Facebook page called Keep Jahi McMath on life support.
snip
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article67403207.html#storylink=cpy
ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)I have my opinion on it, but that doesn't mean my opinion should be legislated. This story has been heartbreaking since it first happened. You take your child in for what you think is going to be a routine tonsillectomy.
djean111
(14,255 posts)ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)and this case violates all three.
People living wills, and I will leave it at that
mercuryblues
(14,531 posts)all the way around. Many people can have their differing opinions as to what they would do. Until you are in that situation, you have no idea what you would do.
malaise
(268,968 posts)these folks are beyond delusional - she's brain dead folks - let go.
panader0
(25,816 posts)I don't want to live if I can't have a quality of life--consciousness especially.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)If I am brain dead or in a PVS I don't want my body kept alive by family members made delusional by grief and denial.
RexDart
(188 posts)That way every body bank and parts palace in the western hemisphere can grab their ice chests and gather round. Freshness counts.
Maru Kitteh
(28,340 posts)There are so many in need, and few who give so in such a well-planned and thoughtful manner.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)If she'd let her daughter go two years ago instead of spending all that effort and all that denial and all of those scarce resources keeping a corpse warm (and a lawsuit lucrative,) her organs could have saved other families the heartbreak of losing their children.
Demonaut
(8,914 posts)LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)The kid's dead. Been dead for years, only machines are keeping the meat warm. Her ghoulish mother needs to make like Elsa and Let it Go.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Lancero
(3,003 posts)The organs can still be used to save other kids, so... yeah. You can't really make the argument that keeping her plugged in killed kids, since keeping her plugged in means her organs can still be used today to save other kids.
That said though, the guidelines for organ donation are EXTREMELY stringent. Even if she went off support two years ago and her mother made the choice to allow her organs to be donated, her organs might not have been accepted for transplant. Still though, her being on a ventilator has kept the organs potentially viable for transplant today, but this again brings us to organ donation having very stringent guidelines.
Sad fact about organ donation is that we have far more who need a transplant then we do have transplantable organs. Waiting a couple years isn't going to change that - The transplant waiting list is still going to be as long as ever. If anything can be used for transplant, then it will be. Well, assuming that her mother would consent to it of course. But then again, that's a entirely different argument and blame game then the one you're trying to play here.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)guidelines and the specific situation in the particular transplant region where the kid lived (because I live in the same area.) But thanks for explaining to me.
LisaL
(44,973 posts)Somebody who doesn't want to donate organs shouldn't be blamed for "killing someone."
Lancero
(3,003 posts)Yet you still tried to make this woman out as a child killer?
Huh. For being aware of everything I'd pointed out, you sure do have a funny way of showing it.
Vinca
(50,269 posts)and your chest going up and down, we can all "live" forever if we want. The mother is in big time denial. Her daughter is dead. It's the container that held her they're keeping on life support.
Bettie
(16,095 posts)is still hoping for a miracle. She wants her child back and can't let go.
As a mom and a woman who has known a lot of people who lost children (once you've had that experience, you meet a lot of them), it is something that happens.
This case is rather extreme, but I can't fault her for not wanting to give up.
I feel sad that she is putting her life and her grieving on hold. When her body finally does give up, it will be even worse for her, having put so much hope into it. But, right now, in her mind, she hasn't lost her child.
So, I get why she can't let go. I don't agree with it, but I understand it.