Brain Death: An Injury or Death

Does not breathing, not responding, not being able to eat or move define death? It is a

question posed by many people in this world full of advanced medical technology. Using a

ventilator, we can keep a dying person alive for months, even years. This is the same case for

Jahi McMath. In her article “What does it mean to die?,” Rachel Aviv writes about Jahi, who

was declared brain dead. Jahi’s family disagreed with the fact that Jahi is in a state from

which she can never recover. In this article following the story of Jahi, the author has used

rhetorical devices extensively in her essay. She has used pathos to justify Jahi being alive

along with using ethos to increase the credibility of her opinion. The author is successful in

persuading the audience by using logos, ethos and pathos in her article.

Jahi McMath was declared brain dead after facing complications arising from a tonsil

removal surgery. Her family members did not agree with the fact that she is dead arguing that

she did not look like a dead person. Aviv mentions the legal battle between Jahi’s family and

the hospital who wanted to declare Jahi dead and vacate the room for other patients. She was

provided care and further treatment in a hospital and later in an apartment in New Brunswick.

Aviv mentions several laws related to definition of death and argues that they need to be

changed. Various bioethicists and neurologists have condemned this act of Jahi’s family and

ridiculed the videos showing her to be responsive to her surroundings. Jahi’s family strongly

believe in the fact that one-day she will recover from the condition she is in right now.

The audience for the article are none other than the people of America with different

ethnicities and have a wide range of social and religious beliefs. The article makes the

audience ask whether all these years of organ harvesting from brain dead people is indeed

justified or not. Aviv says that Nailah believes Jahi’s breathing and her heart beating as a sign
that her soul is still in her body and hence, she can’t be considered dead. Here, Aviv has done

an excellent job to persuade the audience who believe in the notion of soul and divine death.

The author has used pathos extensively in her article while trying to persuade her audience to

believe that Jahi is alive by appealing to their emotions. Crying, she called her mother,

Sandra Chatman, who had been a nurse for thirty years and who worked in a surgery clinic at

Kaiser Permanente, in Oakland (Aviv). Here article tries to connect the audience to the

emotion of love and helplessness expressed by a mother towards her daughter. Nailah who

promised her daughter that she would get a better life after her tonsils removed was left in a

state of despair after her daughter was declared brain dead. Nailah remembers Jahi saying

that if something ever happens to her she wanted her to be put on a ventilator to keep her

alive. The article shows the audience how hard it is for a mother to accept the fact that her

child is dead and that to what extremities can she go to prolong her child’s life.

By March, Jahi’s condition had begun to stabilize. Her skin became more elastic, her limbs

and face became less swollen, and her blood pressure steadied (Aviv). Here, the audience to

feel sympathetic to know that even claimed to be brain dead, improving conditions of Jahi is

indeed a sign of her being alive. The article also mentions Jahi menstruating which is

provides further evidence that Jahi’s body is working which is controlled by brain, asserting

the fact that concept of brain death needs to be defined further. On top of that, the article also

mentions Jahi responding to her mother by moving her limbs and finger which is proved by

the videos taken by Nailah. This gives more evidence and reason for audience to believe that

Jahi is alive and that laws related to brain death should be changed.

Aviv has used logos by providing various factual evidence defining brain death and laws

related to it in her article. The author uses the term Lazarus Effect for justifying movements
of arms, legs and hip by Jahi. The author also writes about the President’s Commission for

the Study of Ethical Problems who proposed a uniform definition and theory of death in

1981. The commission reported that death is the moment when the body stops operating as an

“integrated whole.” This definition is said universal but cases like Jahi prove this law to be

wrong. Jahi is able to respond by moving her limbs and is also menstruating which means

that her body is quite capable of performing various life and bodily functions.

The author has used ethos very efficiently in her article as it is important to create credibility

for facts to which many people might disagree. Aviv has mentioned renowned bioethicists

and neurologists in her article to increase its credibility. The author mentions Daniel Wikler,

a bioethicist and professor at Harvard who claims that “Jahi’s family might be suffering from

“folie à famille,” a rare condition in which a delusion is shared by all members of a family.”

The author says that, “Wikler told the commission that it would be more logical to say that

death occurred when the cerebrum—the center for consciousness, thoughts, and feelings, the

properties essential to having a personal identity—was destroyed.” The author believes that if

everyone agrees to Daniel then a lot of people would be considered dead even when being

alive.

The author has also provided an account of racial discrimination in her article. Nailah thinks

that “if Jahi was a little white girl, I feel we would have gotten a little more help and

attention” (Aviv). Sandra remembers Sharon Williams, an African-American doctor saying

that “if she waited too long to take Jahi off the ventilator, she wouldn’t look good for the

funeral, adding, “You know how we are.”” (Aviv). This made Sandra think to herself that are

black people supposed to be used to their children dying. The author uses this to appeal to the

emotions of audience by generating sympathy on basis of racial discrimination being

practiced in American Healthcare system.

“A large body of research has shown that black patients are less likely to get appropriate

medications and surgeries than white ones are, regardless of their insurance or education

level, and more likely to receive undesirable medical interventions, like amputations.” (Aviv)

Here the author tries to appeal to the audience by using logical reasoning. The author also

uses ethos to increase the credibility of this notion by mentioning Robert Truog, the director

of Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. Truog said, “When a doctor is saying

your loved one is dead, and your loved one doesn’t look dead, I understand that it might feel

that, once again, you are not getting the right care because of the color of your skin” (Aviv)

The author also mentions Troug in an academic meeting where he described brain death as an

injury to brain rather than death. Truog believes that there is nothing immoral in harvesting

organs but he thinks that, “We are doing the right thing for wrong reasons.” (Aviv)

One of the main neurologists mentioned by Aviv is Calixto Machado, the president of the

Cuban Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, who flew from new Jersey just to examine Jahi

and see why is it a big deal. Machado observed that menstruation and change in heart rate

was not possible in a brain-dead patient. This helps increase the author’s credibility for

believing the fact that Jahi is not dead. Furthermore, the author introduces Alan Shewmon,

former chief of neurology department of Olive View-U.C.L.A. Medical Center. Shewmon

agreed with Brazilian neurologist C.G. Coimbra that Jahi suffered from, ishemic penumbra.

“Coimbra hypothesized that this brain state could lead to a misdiagnosis of brain death in

patients whose cerebral blood flow was diminished enough that it couldn’t be detected by the

standard tests. If blood was still flowing to parts of the brain, however slowly, then, in theory,

some degree of recovery could be possible.” Here, the author has provided logical reasoning

for the movement of hands and menstruation in Jahi as she might not have been brain dead

the entire time and might recover someday. By mentioning renowned neurologists, the author

has tried to increase her credibility and is quite successful in doing so.
At last, the author has provided a brief account of Nailah and Jordyn, Jahi’s sister which

appeals to emotions of audience. Nailah asks Jordyn when she seemed jealous of Jahi getting

all attention that, “Do you think your sister would do this for you?” to which Jordyn replies

affirmatively. Aviv also mentions that Jordyn rubs lotion on Jahi’s legs and puts on lip gloss

on Jahi which shows the audience that even though Jahi supposedly can’t feel anything her

family does not think that at all. Jahi’s loved ones strongly believe that she is with them and

one day she will become normal.

The article written by Rachel Aviv is successful in persuading the audience in believing that

Jahi is alive. According to me, Aviv has done an excellent job by providing logical reasoning

for the actions of Jahi along with trying to appeal to the emotions of audience and increasing

credibility of her opinion and idea by mentioning experts in field of her topic. Aviv has

clearly used rhetorical devices all over her article which has truly shown its colors in

convincing the audience that Jahi will recover from the state she is right now.

Word Count: 1623

 Works Cited

Aviv, Rachel. "What Does It Mean To Die?." The New Yorker, 5 February 2018,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/what-does-it-mean-to-die. Accessed 9
February 2018