If a brain-dead California girl who was the focus of a court fight over the removal of her life support is in a New Jersey hospital, it's probably the best destination for her, a medical expert said Thursday.

That's because New Jersey is the only state in the United States with a law requiring hospitals to accommodate brain-dead patients who belong to a religion that does not accept the diagnosis as a final verdict for death, Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University's School of Medicine, told the Contra Costa Times.

Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old Oakland, Calif. girl who is believed to be at Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, would be the first to test the law, Caplan told the newspaper

"As far as I've been able to tell, no one knows if anyone has ever used it," he said. "You'd probably have to show you belong to a church that doesn't accept brain death or a religious group. But all that said, New Jersey...is the best destination."

The teen was declared brain dead on Dec. 12 and has been on a ventilator ever since. She has been in the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland, where she entered for tonsil, throat and nose surgery to correct sleep apnea.

She left the Children's Hospital on Jan. 5 after her family won a court order allowing them to remove her.

A hospital spokesman at St Peter's would not confirm or deny whether the girl is a patient.