The diagnosis of “brain death” handed to teenager Jahi McMath is far from final, according to her family and their attorney.  They are seeking to have her declared “alive again” following her removal from California, which found her officially “brain dead,” and her rehabilitation in New Jersey, a state that does not accept the “brain death” diagnosis for a patient whose vital functions continue strong.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

To bolster his claim that Jahi McMathshould be declared “alive again,” the attorney for the Oakland teenager’s family displayed video clips Thursday that he says show the girl responding to her mother’s requests to move her feet and hands.

“Jahi suffered a serious brain injury — no doubt about it,’’ attorney Chris Dolan said. “But we question how accurate the brain-dead assessment is.”

Doctors at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland declared the 13-year-old girl brain dead in December after she went into cardiac arrest following routine surgery to deal with sleep apnea. Her family has fought the hospital every step of the way and says she is still alive.

Note that the hospital has a huge financial stake in the "brain death" diagnosis. Its liability for lifetime care for a victim of routine surgery dwarfs the payout it would face in the case of death.

Dolan said the goal was to “get the mantle of death off of her” so that Jahi can return to California from New Jersey, where she is being cared for by her mother, stepfather and sister at a private home.

In one video clip, which the attorney said was shot within the past few days, Jahi’s mother,Nailah Winkfield, is seen coaxing her daughter to move her foot and toes.

“Come on Jahi, you can do it,” Winkfield says, and after several seconds pass, the girl jerks her foot.

In another clip, the mother urges Jahai to move her hand, which is holding a foam padded cup. The girl lifts the cup a few inches, then drops it.

The video, via KPIX TV is below. Draw your own conclusions whether this is a corpse or a human being: