By TANIA OLIVARES
Staff Writer
Jahi McMath and Marlise Munoz are two young women who have been caught in a deathly incident that caused them to go into a brain-dead state. Their families have opposite viewpoints about keeping their loved ones on the ventilator, or if not. The term ‘brain-dead’ is supposedly a condition where, “people declared brain-dead are no longer alive”(Szabo 1). Jahi’s family argues with the hospital that the young teen should be kept on the ventilator. The ventilator does not seem to be helping Jahi as much though, for it only makes her seem alive. Arthur Caplan claims that, “Jahi’s new doctors are trying to ‘ventilate and otherwise treat a corpse,’ … ‘She is going to start to decompose'(Szabo 2). This supports the point that Jahi shouldn’t be left on the ventilator, since she is in a death-like state. Munoz’s situation, on the other hand, is that she is pregnant. This contrasts from Jahi, who is only a teen. Laurence McCullough claims, “If Munoz is dead, and the hospital wishes to continue ventilation to save her fetus, that is considered a medical experiment…”(Szabo 2). I have agreed with this at first, until Caplan argues, “Given that Munoz has suffered a loss of oxygen to her brain because of the clot, the fetus may have suffered grievous harm…”(Szabo 2). In this case, Munoz as well should not continue ventilation along with Jahi. To wrap this all up, the doctors, and experts, should be the ones to decide to ‘pull-the-plug’ on patients. I know the families may argue otherwise, but it is better to let people who know what they are doing handle the situation.