It's a strange world we live in, sometimes we can be lucky and other times something unfortunate happens that piques not only curiosity,  but healthy debate.

This particular case has all the ingredients of a melting pot filled with all the usual suspects - religion, medical science, lawyers and conspiracy theories.  It's been a case that's had me interested for nearly a year,  and will no doubt cause a bit of criticism, however these are my own thoughts and are not meant to offend, or trivialise what this is about.

I won't go into the entire history as it is here, but have a look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahi_McMath_case for a comprehensive version.

In a nutshell, in Dec 2013, Jahi McMath was declared brain dead after a complicated surgery to hopefully cure sleep aponea was performed. Post op complications ensued and the poor girl went into cardiac arrest where here brain was consequentially deprived of oxygen which led to the Brain Death diagnosis.

I'm not going argue here about reports of the Mother feeding her a Hamburger post op, or members of the family sunctioning her themselves.  I will say that possible legal action against the hospital was not successful as findings conclusively cleared the hospital of wrong doing.  This part of it is over, so let's move on.

After a legal to fight to keep Jahi on life support due to religious beliefs, the family won the fight to have her stay on the ventilator until she could be moved to another facility. This happened in January and was funded by the Terry Schiavo foundation. (A famous case of a young lady stuck in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) before courts ruled to remove her feeding tube).

As usual in these circumstances,  a Go Fund Me page was set up, and a 'Keep Jahi on Life Support' Facebook page. This is where the clear division begins in support attitudes.  After all these months pics started to appear on line of the mother perhaps spending money on things most people believe was wrong. Also the Facebook page morphs into an ever increasing almost extreme religious 'shrine' to this girl with the belief that God will raise Jahi from her slumber. Comments that don't fit into this vein are quickly deleted so unfortunately there is no varied or balanced debate here.

Ok, getting past this...if people want to donate let them, it's their choice, and their decision, and I certainly don't have a right to dictate what people spend their money on. I'm not a religious person myself, but if that gives you hope and strength than once again, completely your choice.

The real issue here is massively an ethical one in my mind, and ethics are a part of science and a part of religion so this us the real crux.  In October, the lawyer for the McMath family, lodges an appeal with the courts to have the Death Certificate reversed and to have Jahi no longer classed as Brain Dead. Two pieces of key evidence?

1. An undated MRI
2. Seconds of footage showing Jahi allegedly moving her feet and hands at her mother's command.

MRI and video footage can be seen here:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Videos-show-Mom-coaxing-Jahi-McMath-moving-5797622.php

It needs to be noted, that the family has not allowed any new bedside tests to be performed, specifically the aponea test which involves the vent being switched off to raise CO2 levels, which in turn should trigger a 'take a breath' reflex. These tests were all performed by several doctors at several different time frames and she failed at all.

I am certainly not a medical expert, but I have compared Jahi's MRI with a healthy one, and there's no doubt there are some large deficiencies.   Someone with a neurological background will be able to assess in more detail.

Unfortunately (and medical professionals will tell you this) it's very common in brain dead patients for limbs to jerk, twitch and move. This is known as Spinal Reflex and is independent of brain function.  It's a cruel product of brain death, as it can convince family that their loved ones still have hope.

Personally, (my own opinion) I believe this little girl was lost back in December '13.  I think hoping for any sort of recovery is futile. Ethically from both a religious and medical stand point, I do believe after nearly a year of 'artifical animation' this girl deserves the respect of finally being put to rest.

After recently dealing with an immediate family death due to neurological damage, it's a heatbraking and stressful decision to either stand by or make, but in the end, when there is no hope, it's the morally and ethically correct one.

Oh, and no matter how old or young you may be now, please make your wishes known to family and recorded.  It's so very hard when your family is left with that decision.

I know, I'm usually a bit of a jokester on Twitter, and I promise my next blog will be 'lighter'. Thanks for reading if you did!

Sarah