In a last attempt to save their daughter’s life, Avraham and Chaya Fixsler called on the government to intervene, The Jewish Chronicle reported on Friday.
“We ask Boris Johnson and [Health Secretary] Sajid Javid to intervene and request the Trust reconsider their position and allow Alta to come home to her family,” the parents said in a statement.
Former MP Ivan Lewis, who is Jewish, also called on the government to intervene. “It is not too late to show some compassion for the grieving parents and respect for their religious beliefs,” he said.
Manchester Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag, of the Coalition for Jewish Values, was quoted by The Chronicle as saying that the hospital trust’s decision to withdraw Alta’s life support is “child euthanasia against the wishes of the parents.”
“It has no place in any decent humane society, and stands at odds with the liberal nature of today’s Britain. It breaches the sacred bond between parents and child and is an assault on the basic moral fabric of the family.”
Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected the family’s appeal to reverse the decision of a UK court mandating the withdrawal of life support from 2-year-old Alta.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Here in America we have futile care laws, which were pioneered by Geo. Bush when he was gov. of Texas. In a case such as this a hospital or rehab in my state could receive the patient as a private pay. That was, of course, pre covid and before there were the bed shortages we’re currently seeing.
The British government has taken on middos S’dom. Everything should be done to fend for this girl’s right to live. Middah k’neged middah, the British people are already walking in darkness and rolling up their arms for zero-liability, experimental injections. One would think they would have woken up already to the wrath of divine disappointment that is so close upon them – making fools of their officials and also many citizens.
I doubt that Johnson has any authority to intervene. The courts have determined that it’s in Alta’s best interest to die, so die she must. The fact that the parents don’t want her to die is simply irrelevant.
UK law does not recognize that parents have any rights whatsoever over their children; they are generally entrusted with looking after their children, but if that’s not in the child’s best interest then the state can dismiss them. Whenever they put anything ahead of the child’s interests, they are betraying the trust the state put in them. Basically, that is not your child, it’s the state’s child, and you are only the state’s agent, who is allowed by the state’s great grace and kindness to act for it so long as you do what the state wants.
In the USA parents do have a constitutional right to be in charge of their children. It’s not absolute, but there’s at least a presumption in favor of it, and the fact that their decisions put some other value above the child’s interests (as the state views them) does not automatically mean they lose custody.
Hashem rules…..sometimes parents and loved ones can never let go____not sure if it is a dis-ease- or if it is the emunah we need to grow__bless this child__
The issue around Alta (and several other non-Jewish young patients before her) goes much deeper than “private pay”. All parents want, is to take their child out of the country to be cared at no cost to the UK.
It’s their erroneous secular philosophy that allows them to determine “whether living is in best interest for the child”.
In fact, it would have saved UK’s national health service many thousands of pounds, had they let Alta go abroad 6 months ago.
IMHO try to involve the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope, if they’re welling to get involved. Also leading Moslim clerics in England and Europe. If there’s a united religious front the courts might (or might not) listen. Maybe it’s already been tried. In any case, it’s Hashem and Beis Din shel Maaleh Who decide exactly how long everyone, including this girl who was obviously sent in this gilgul for some tikun we can’t begin to understand, will live. Hashem yaazor.