The strictly Orthodox parents of a seriously-ill toddler have lost their legal battle over the location at which her life support should be withdrawn.

Alta Fixsler, 2, was born with a catastrophic brain injury and doctors say she has no prospect of recovery. She has been under the care of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust since birth.

Her parents, who had also unsuccessfully fought against discontinuing her life-sustaining treatment, hoped the step would be taken in the family home while the trust contended that a children’s hospice or her pediatric intensive care unit were the best locations.

But in a judgment issued Wednesday, Justice MacDonald ruled it was in the toddler’s “best interests" for her to be taken off life support at a children's hospice.

“I am satisfied that this option best accommodates Alta’s welfare need for specialist care at the end of her life under a reliable, safe and sustainable system of high calibre care protected from disruption, whilst allowing, in so far as possible and consistent with Alta’s best interests, the family and the community to perform the sacred religious obligations of the Orthodox Jewish faith,” the judge ruled. 

The Supreme Court refused in July to overturn an earlier ruling allowing her transfer into palliative care and the European Court of Human Rights rejected another appeal in August.