While I've had a lot of Biblical education (personal and institutional), I'm certainly no spiritual authority...but I've been having an interesting 'friendly debate' today on Twitter with someone who believes, since the Bible says the "life is in the blood," that JM is still alive because her blood is being pumped through her system. For what it's worth, my own view is, yes--I believe the Bible, too. But if we're going to apply that particular verse to explain everything about this, here's another way to look at it. If the "life is in the blood" and there's no blood in JM's brain since 12/12, then, the way I see it, at least--there's no Life in her brain, and the person we might have known as Jahi has moved on.
This interesting blog (posted earlier) remarks how we can replace other organs, but not the brain. All of our other organs are dependent upon our brain. Early Christian or philosophical thought (back to Aristotle) held that the 'heart' was the seat of the soul. But the original scripture used to reference that was written in poetic languages (Grk/Hebrew), not literal ones. The 'heart' refers to the comprehending essence and expression of a person/personality. Jahi could still have that individual essence if her physical heart were surgically replaced, or if she were missing a kidney or limb--but not if her brain were removed. We've also heard how, if the human heart were to be removed from the body and put in oxygenated saline, it would continue to beat--but we wouldn't equate that heart with the person. To me the brain is key, and it seems self-evident that the life that was "Jahi" would no longer be there once her brain was irreversibly dead. I believe Jahi's personhood is no longer in that brain--Jahi has
already moved on, IMHO. And while I'm not trying to proselytize here, I, at least, find comfort in that.
