Jahi McMath update

Forgot how I ended up at this story:  “Mother of brain-dead Jahi McMath says daughter is ‘still sleeping’” but  I am still following this and curious as to how it ultimately plays out.  In her latest interview, the mother said,

I don’t use the word ‘brain dead’ for my daughter. I’m just waiting and faithful that she will have a recovery. . . . She is blossoming into a teenager before my eyes.

 Of course, the article gave no specific indicators of any progress or changes at all, really.  Does “blossoming into a teenager” mean that she is actually growing?  It seems unlikely, and far more likely that the mother sees what she wants to see.

But nonetheless, one presumes that, as in the cases of brain-dead women maintained on life support while an unborn child grows, she continues to appear to be “alive” with the ventilator, feeding tubes, etc., maintaining a visual appearance of health.  And the commenters ignorantly claim that the body is decomposing and the family is caring for a rotting stench of a corpse.

I admit that I’m just plain curious as to the final outcome — let’s consider this as an experiment (which, if she is dead in a physiological and spiritual/moral sense, if there’s no “soul” there anymore, is no worse, ethically, than what’s done to a body donated to science), if nothing else, to answer the question of how long a brain-dead body can be maintained.  I’m also taking it for granted that the family and their supporters are honorable and honest enough that, at whatever point the mechanical systems cannot maintain the body’s functioning, they will not pretend otherwise.