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Communal groups back appeal to allow sick baby to be taken to Israel
Alta, who suffered a brain injury at birth, is unable to breathe, eat or drink without medical intervention
June 8, 2021 12:50
Alta, who suffered a brain injury at birth, is unable to breathe, eat or drink without medical intervention
June 8, 2021 12:50The Board of Deputies has welcomed Israel’s appeal to the Health Secretary to allow a two-year-old suffering from irreversible brain damage to be treated in Tel Aviv.
Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein appealed to the British government, through Matt Hancock, to reverse the decision made by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust that “there was no prospect of her ever getting better”.
A High Court judge ruled that, Alta Fixsler, should be put into palliative care, agreeing with lawyers for the hospital in May.
However the family have requested that she be treated in Israel.
In the latest intervention, Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said: “We welcome Israel’s offer to transfer Alta Fixler for treatment, in accordance with her parents’ wishes. We have written to the Department of Health and Social Care to ask that this be seriously considered.”
.@BoDPres Marie van der Zyl welcomes Israel’s offer to treat toddler with irreversible brain damage https://t.co/xrnHmzKBFW
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) June 8, 2021
In May Mr Justice MacDonald, sitting in the Family Division of the High Court, put paid to the hopes of Alta’s strictly Orthodox parents, who had wanted to take their daughter to a Jerusalem hospital for further treatment.
The JC understands the Chief Rabbi wrote a letter in support of the family's wishes as part of the court ruling.
Alta, who suffered a brain injury at birth, is unable to breathe, eat or drink without medical intervention. The Manchester hospital told the court that she is unable to experience pleasure but could experience pain and distress.
Before his ruling, the judge told lawyers he would have to take the ongoing hostilities in Israel and Gaza into account when reaching a decision about what was in Alta’s best interests.
But it appeared that this was not a major consideration in the judge’s ruling. He told lawyers for Alta’s parents, and the hospital, that the child had “no prospect of recovery”, and that taking her abroad would expose her to “further pain”.
The Fixslers’ barrister, Victoria Butler-Cole, said they had “implored the trust to reconsider their position” and allow them to take their daughter to a hospital in Jerusalem.
But Mr Justice MacDonald said that taking Alta to Israel “would cause her discomfort for no medical benefit, in circumstances where all parties accept that the treatment options now available for Alta provide no prospect of recovery”.
Her parents, he added, “cannot be criticised for having reached a different decision informed by the religious laws that govern their way of life, but applying the secular legal principles that I must... I cannot agree with their assessment and am required to act accordingly”. He instructed the hospital to proceed with a palliative care regime for Alta.
The parents, according to their lawyer, are “devastated” at the ruling and are considering an appeal.