Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin made an impassioned plea to Britain’s Prince Charles, seeking his intervention to prevent health officials from disconnecting a Jewish infant from life support, the president’s office reported Wednesday.
Two-year-old Alta Fixler has been hospitalized in England since she was born with brain damage. British health authorities petitioned the courts there for permission to switch off life-support equipment, claiming that it was in the child’s best interest.
Her devoutly religious parents have refused to let her die and asked that they be allowed to transport Alta to Israel, where officials have agreed to accept her for continued medical treatment.
“Your Royal Highness, I am writing to you today on a matter of grave and urgent humanitarian importance,” Rivlin wrote. “As you may know, a recent High Court ruling in the case of two-year-old Alta Fixler of Manchester has given doctors permission to switch off the life-support treatment that is keeping her alive.”
“It is the fervent wish of her parents, who are devoutly religious Jews and Israeli citizens, that their daughter be brought to Israel. Their religious beliefs directly oppose ceasing medical treatment that could extend her life and have made arrangements for her safe transfer and continued treatment in Israel,” Rivlin said.
“I know that representations have been made to Her Majesty’s Government on this matter, but I feel that the unique circumstances warrant a personal intervention on my part to you. It would be a tragedy if these parents’ wishes could not be accommodated in a way that respects both the law and their religious beliefs,” Rivlin concluded.
Earlier this week Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein also appealed to his British counterpart, Matt Hancock, to intervene and grant the parents’ request to leave England and take their daughter for treatment in Israel.
“Alta’s parents are Orthodox Jews and Israeli citizens, living their lives according to [Jewish law], and they are interested in transferring Alta to one of the two hospitals in Israel that have expressed a willingness to treat her. I would appreciate if you could help the Fixler family bring Alta for further treatment in Israel,” Edelstein said.
The family’s lawyer, Barrister Victoria Butler-Cole, told the website WhatsNew2Day that the parents don’t understand why the hospital wants their daughter to die instead of being allowed “to be treated in Israel by doctors who share their religious beliefs and ethical framework.”
“Hospitals in Israel are willing to accept Alta, the risks
of transmission are very low and the costs of safely transporting Alta are
covered,” Butler-Cole said, saying the parents are begging the court and the
hospital to reconsider their decision.
A fundraising website set up for Alta had raised £275,907
($391,000) as of Monday.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-to-england-let-us-save-2-year-olds-life/
The fate of a 2-year-old Jewish girl on life support in England could be decided at a court hearing on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteAlta Fixler of Manchester is gravely ill due to natal complications and has been on life support since birth. On May 28, the High Court of London ruled that ending Alta’s life is in her best interest, as medical experts do not believe she has a chance of recovering or feeling pleasure, the BBC reported. They believe she can sense discomfort.
Her parents said that taking their daughter off life support would contradict their Jewish faith. Judaism commands the preservation of human life and generally forbids actions to end it, though rabbis, including Orthodox ones, have diverging opinions on taking seemingly incurably patients off life support.
In the ruling, Justice Alistair MacDonald rejected a petition by the girl’s parents, who are haredi Orthodox, to have her moved to a hospital in Jerusalem.
More than 40,000 people have signed a petition urging British authorities not to stop life support.
“Alta’s family want her to be transferred to an Israeli hospital on religious and ethical grounds,” the online petition reads.
The move has been delayed pending the hearing this week.
The parents had petitioned the court after doctors at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which operates the hospital where Fixler is being cared for, told them that their daughter should be taken off life support and allowed to die.
The hospital declined to have the girl discharged, leading to the legal fight.
The post British court rules that haredi Orthodox couple’s 2-year-old daughter must be taken off life support appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/jta/british-court-rules-that-haredi-orthodox-couple-s-2-year-old-daughter-must-be-taken/article_b3268e36-f1ee-5d97-b88d-f9a20386987a.html
The fate of a 2-year-old Jewish girl on life support in England could be decided at a court hearing on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteAlta Fixler of Manchester is gravely ill due to natal complications and has been on life support since birth. On May 28, the High Court of London ruled that ending Alta’s life is in her best interest, as medical experts do not believe she has a chance of recovering or feeling pleasure, the BBC reported. They believe she can sense discomfort.
Her parents said that taking their daughter off life support would contradict their Jewish faith. Judaism commands the preservation of human life and generally forbids actions to end it, though rabbis, including Orthodox ones, have diverging opinions on taking seemingly incurably patients off life support.
In the ruling, Justice Alistair MacDonald rejected a petition by the girl’s parents, who are haredi Orthodox, to have her moved to a hospital in Jerusalem.
More than 40,000 people have signed a petition urging British authorities not to stop life support.
“Alta’s family want her to be transferred to an Israeli hospital on religious and ethical grounds,” the online petition reads.
The move has been delayed pending the hearing this week.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/british-court-rules-that-haredi-toddler-must-be-taken-off-life-support-671779
The Jerusalem Post, 23 June 2021, reports that baby Alta Fixler will be removed from life support. Following her parent’s wishes to send her to a hospital in Jerusalem due to her parent’s Haredi Orthodox Jewish faith. The parents petitioned the hospital to release their child, who has been on life support since birth, to travel to the Jerusalem Hospital. Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) took legal action, and now the child is slated to be removed from life support.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge Check!Make no mistake, this type of parental and patient abuse is alive and well in America. The face of socialized medicine is a nameless bureaucrat making decisions, running to a judge, and forcing upon parents that which the parents believe is not in the best interest of their child. If you want to read the heartbreaking story of socialized medicine in America, look no further than the Justina Pelletier case. The only question never answered in the Justina Pelletier case has been where do parental rights end and hospital bureaucrats begin? Never answered, and this legal gray area is where socialized medicine thrives!
Baby Alta Fixler is not the first child to die by government fiat in English hospitals by court order. Justina Pelletier is not the first case of hospitals abusing patients based upon doctor opinions and bureaucracy. The entire conversation needs to be had. Each state in America, each voter in America, needs to decide should a nameless, faceless bureaucrat have life and death control over your loved one, or should the family and parents have that control?
https://dnc-consulting.com/
Despite all the dreadfully depressing news that swirls around us on a continual basis, there are glimmers of hope as it pertains to human decency, kindness, compassion and the willingness to help the less fortunate.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a recently published report on the Vois Is Nais web site, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer along with the assistance of other elected officials and activists stepped in to help a 10-year old Jewish girl and her family who were at the brink of despair.
As was reported on the VIN web site, Avraham Fixler and his wife Chaya had a daughter named Alta ten years ago. At birth, Alta was deprived of oxygen for close to a half hour. This led to severe brain damage, and Alta began her life attached to a ventilator.
The VIN report continued: At the time, doctors told the Fixlers that it was unlikely that their daughter would survive for 24 hours. Boruch Hashem, their predictions proved wrong, and Alta, beloved and cherished by her family, survived. Unfortunately, Alta is currently unresponsive and severely limited in her physical capabilities. The doctors said that because she is unresponsive, she has no quality of life, but the Fixlers made sure that they took care of her and gave her the highest quality of life they could under the circumstances.
After many months in the hospital, it became clear that the hospital was not working toward a plan to send Alta home, but rather they were working to establish a legal basis to remove her from life support, according to the VIN report. Thus began a lengthy legal battle in the United Kingdom.
The hospital and its advisory board went to court, arguing that Alta should be removed from the ventilator. The case was heard in the high court of London from May 19th through May 21st. Ultimately the judge said while that he was not fully convinced that the doctors had proven that the child was suffering, he felt he should side with the medical professionals. Despite all the arguments about jurisdiction, citizenship, religious considerations and everything else, the judge ruled that Alta Fixler’s life should end, as was reported by VIN.
Devastated by the court’s decision, Alta’s family began working at a feverish pace to arrange a visa to move Alta out of the country to receive care somewhere else.
On Friday, Sen. Chuck Schumer announced that the visa for Alta has been urgently approved and obtained, which will allow her and her U.S. citizen father, Abraham Fixler to travel to the United States and receive care.
“All the Fixler’s want is to follow their faith and get their little girl the best care in the process,” Schumer said. “The images of little Alta make your heart melt and to know just how much her parents love her inspires us to do all we can to ensure her best chance. Aside from this federal action of securing a visa, I also offer my most fervent prayers to her and her family.”
https://thejewishvoice.com/2021/07/sen-chuck-schumer-obtains-visa-to-save-life-of-young-jewish-girl-condemned-to-die-in-uk/
The Fixler family and the Jewish community are continuing to fight for the life of two-year-old Alta Fixsler, who has been hospitalized in Manchester, England since shortly after her birth. Following a recent court ruling that the hospital where she is being cared for may remove her from life support, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer became involved in the struggle and managed to obtain a visa for the little girl, whose father is a U.S. citizen.
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks ago, Hamodia reports, Schumer sent a letter to Karen Pierce, Britain’s ambassador to the United States, notifying her that he was in the process of securing citizenship for Alta and asking “that all health decisions that are against the wishes of the family be suspended until the citizenship process is complete and Alta can travel to the U.S.”
“All the Fixslers want is to follow their faith and get their little girl the best care in the process,” Schumer said in a statement last Friday. “The images of little Alta make your heart melt, and to know just how much her parents love her inspires us to do all we can to ensure her best chance. Aside from this federal action of securing a visa, I also offer my most fervent prayers to her and her family.”
Rabbi Moshe Dovid Niederman of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, one of several Jewish community activists who have been lobbying government officials on behalf of the Fixslers, told Hamodia that he appreciates “Sen. Schumer and his staff working with us around the clock to help save Alta’s life by obtaining this visa through the U.S. Embassy in the U.K. We now appeal to the British Health Ministry: Please don’t block Alta’s chance to live. Please allow the child to come to the United States, into the welcoming hands of the Jewish community here, who will do all we can to save her life.” (continued)
(continued)Rabbi Niederman added that medical transport to the United States has already been arranged via Jewish philanthropists who have offered to cover the associated expenses. Nonetheless, the hospital is still resisting the plan to transfer Alta, arguing that as “there is no prospect of her ever getting better” it is “more humane” to allow her to die.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel, said in a statement on Friday, “The United States government has made a bold statement today: A statement that values life, that values parental autonomy over governmental paternalism, and a statement that recognizes a sincerely held religious belief. We sincerely hope that the U.K. government will respond in kind.”
Parallel to this development, ten Republican senators sent a letter to President Joe Biden last week asking him to “advocate to Prime Minister Johnson on behalf of the Fixsler family.”
Rabbi Moshe Margaretten of Tzedek Association told Hamodia on Friday that the court ruling “that parents don’t have religious-freedom rights as they pertain to a young, disabled child runs contrary to all decent values, and discriminates against the disabled.
“With the support of the Democratic Senate Majority Leader as well as ten Republican senators, this is now a bipartisan issue,” Margaretten noted. “This is about saving a life, which everyone, no matter their politics, should believe in. We ask the U.K. government to similarly respect the sanctity of life and the family’s wishes.”
Although the battle for Alta’s life is ostensibly about her welfare, it has raised additional questions about the role religious beliefs can be permitted to play in life and death questions. Justice MacDonald, who ruled on the Fixsler case in May, rejected the argument that the parents’ religious rights automatically gave them the right to make vital decisions for their daughter, stating that while her parents might espouse certain positions, it could not be assumed that their daughter concurred.
In addition, referring to a request to allow Alta to be transferred to a hospital in Israel, he noted that he would be taking into account hostilities between Gaza and Israel when reaching a decision on what was in the girl’s best interests.
The case is currently being appealed.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309227
On May 28, a judge ruled that ending Alta’s life is in her best interest, as medical experts do not believe she has a chance of recovering or feeling pleasure.
ReplyDeleteDoctors at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust had concluded “there was no prospect of her ever getting better”.
Alta’s parents – her mother is Israeli and her father is Israeli-American – had sought permission to appeal the decision.
Lawyers for the family had cited eight grounds of appeal – including the claim that the judge had failed to appreciate the overwhelming important of the child’s religion and culture.
The Israeli background of her family – and the need for her to be in Israel when her life ended so she could be buried speedily.
But in a judgement handed down on July 9, the court of appeal, Lord Justice Baker ruled:”I know that Alta’s devoted parents will be profoundly distressed by the outcome of this appeal.
“Every parent and grandparent – indeed every person – from every community will have the deepest sympathy for them, and for Alta’s loving sibling.
“The strong support they draw from their faith and their community will be a source of consolation, but the emotional pain they are suffering is very hard to endure.
“I understand why they have pursued this appeal and deeply regret that I cannot do more to help them.
“As a judge, however, my duty is to apply the law, and in this case, the law requires me to dismiss the appeal for the reasons I have given.”
Lady Justice Carr, and Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing also expressed agreement with the decision.
The appeal court ruled that a judge was “entitled, and right, to conclude that it is in Alta’s best interests that the life-sustaining treatment be withdrawn.”
The earlier decision had taken into account “the fact that continuing the treatment would impose an additional burden on her” and also recognised ” that because of her condition she would have minimal awareness of family and social relationships and as a result have minimal or no ability to take comfort or enjoyment from those who love her or were around her.”
The High Court judge had also “carefully considered the religious views of principles held by her parents, but concluded that he was not satisfied in the circumstances of this case that those beliefs and principles outweighed the other compelling factors that pointed in the opposite direction.”
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl had been among those to write to the Department of Health in support of an attempt by Israel to transfer Alta to a Tel Aviv hospital to treat her.
Israel’s former President and its Chief Rabbi had been amongst those writing letters of support for the family.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/parents-of-girl-with-brain-damage-denied-right-to-appeal-end-life-support/
Alta Fixler has been sentenced to die in Britain. She is not a terrorist. She is not a criminal. She is not even an Israeli soldier accused of killing Palestinians.
ReplyDeleteAlta is two-years-old. Her crime is being Jewish and Israeli.
In May, a British court ruled that Alta be taken off life support. Diagnosed as brain-injured, Alta has been connected to a ventilator in a Manchester hospital.
The case is unprecedented because Alta is an Israeli citizen and her parents want to take her to Israel for treatment. Two hospitals in Jerusalem have agreed to treat her. But a British High Court judge said no. Alta’s transfer from Manchester to Israel, he said, would cause her further pain. Death would be a better solution.
There has been little dissent. Britain and other European Union countries with socialized medicine have adopted a policy of euthanasia. The policy began with abortion on demand, followed by the right of a patient to end life-support. Then, parents and children were given the same right to kill their loved ones. Over the last few years, the policy has allowed hospitals to remove patients from life support against the wishes of the family.
The process of official murder is not difficult. The hospital submits the opinion of physicians that the doomed patient will never recover and that death would end his suffering. In 2017, Britain, supported by the European Court of Human Rights, refused to allow Charlie Gard, less than a year old, to be taken to a US hospital for experimental treatment. Against the wishes of her parents, a British hospital removed life support from Charlie, who died a day later.
Charlie was not a foreign national. Alta is, and the refusal by the British government and legal system to allow her parents to fight for her life in a different country raises questions regarding the fate of the Jews in Britain and other EU countries. It also marks a trend that echoes Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
In 1935, Hitler began a secret program of euthanasia. His justification was racial and economic. Aktion T4 started slowly, first with forced sterilization of people deemed as having hereditary diseases or social deviance. Ironically, Aktion T4 could have included numerous Nazi officials, including Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels, whose right leg was deformed.
The killings, under the supervision of Hitler’s physicians, began in late 1939 in newly-constructed gas chambers headed by the new Reich Committee for the Scientific Registering of Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses. The first victims were gentiles. By 1941, Germany had constructed a death network for Jews.
The British as well as American elite were enthusiastic over Hitler’s policies. Britain has been regarded as the home of the eugenics movement. Between 1907 and 1912, eight US states required sterilization of what they termed “defectives and degenerates.”...
Israel has issued puny appeals for Britain to release Alta. Both President Reuven Rivlin and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein have pointed out that Alta’s parents are Orthodox Jews who live “their lives according to Hebrew law.” The presumption is that had the parents been enlightened secular Jews, they would allow their child to die. Nearly 35,000 people disagree and have signed a petition [http://chng.it/64VVMVd6] for Alta’s release.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/first-they-came-for-alta/
The Fixler family lost its appeal to the UK’s High Court to prevent the withdrawal of life support from 2-year-old Alta and bring her to Israel, UK media outlets reported.
ReplyDeleteThe High Court ruled on Friday that an earlier court decision to provide palliative care only must be upheld.
“I know that Alta’s devoted parents will be profoundly distressed by the outcome of this appeal,” Lord Justice Baker wrote. “Every parent and grandparent – indeed every person – from every community will have the deepest sympathy for them, and for Alta’s loving sibling.”
“The strong support they draw from their faith and their community will be a source of consolation, but the emotional pain they are suffering is very hard to endure. I understand why they have pursued this appeal and deeply regret that I cannot do more to help them.”
Justice Baker was apparently not impressed by the numerous public figures from all over the world who tried to intervene and wrote letters to UK senior officials imploring them to allow Alta’s parents to bring her to Israel without any cost to the UK.
He wrote that he “has great respect for the views held by the President and Chief Rabbi of Israel and the other correspondents” and that “the issues arising in this case, as in similar cases in the English courts in recent years, have attracted extensive comment in this country and abroad.” However, “Such comment, from whatever source, cannot have an important influence on the outcome of proceedings, which must be determined on the evidence and in accordance with the principles of English law.”
The Fixsler family can still appeal the case to the Supreme Court, the UK’s final court of appeal.
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/1990969/fixsler-family-loses-appeal-to-save-2-yr-old-altas-life.html
An international tug-of-war has erupted over a seriously ill 2-year-old girl in England, where an American father is fighting with British doctors who want to pull the plug on her life support.
ReplyDeleteSeverely brain-damaged at birth, little Alta Fixler has been on a ventilator all her life, needed a feeding tube and suffered from seizures. She can’t maintain her core body temperature, or even blink, sometimes requiring her to close her eyes.
Her doctors at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital believe that Alta has “no conscious awareness,” and the English courts have supported the decision of medical experts to let Alta die.
But Alta’s father, Abraham Fixler, who joined Yeshiva in Brooklyn as a youth, continues to fight for his life.
“There is no reason to kill my daughter like this,” he insisted to The Post.
The family’s 11th-hour plight has drawn the bipartisan attention of powerful US elections.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-NY) is pushing for the family to be brought to the United States.
“My heart breaks for the Fixler family,” Schumer told The Post.
There are doctors in the US and Israel, where the family once lived, said the desperate father, wanting to treat Alta.
“There are so many places around the world where I can look after my daughter and they would be happy to look after her long term,” said Fixler, 28, accusing Alta and her family of being held hostage. he said. “
“Let me go. That’s all I’m saying,” said Fixler, who is also the father of an 8-year-old son.
“Doctors don’t think he has quality of life,” Fixler said. “But I think he has quality of life.”
“That’s something very painful.”
Alta Fixler has been on a ventilator her entire life, requires a feeding tube and suffers from seizures.
The family has been fighting for Alta in British courts since 2019, and has suffered several losses as the case slowly makes its way through the legal system. In May a High Court judge ruled that life support can be removed. On 9 July the country’s appeals court confirmed the decision, saying the decision was in Alta’s best interest.(continued)
(continued)So far the British government has refused to allow Alta to visit. The case is not one of red tape, but the desire of her current doctors not to see her life extended elsewhere, court papers show.
ReplyDeleteHigh Court Justice Alistair Macdonald ruled in his June ruling, “It cannot be said in the best interest of Alta to be transferred to Israel to continue treatment to sustain life.”
Letting your daughter die would be a violation of the family’s strongly held Hasidic Jewish beliefs.
“There’s no reason to kill my daughter like this,” Abraham Fixler told The Post.
“The value of our lives is built into our religious upbringing. Orthodox Judaism encourages the continuation of life until all means are exhausted,” family spokesman Yossi Gestetner told The Post.
The family had moved to England five years earlier to live with Alta’s grandparents.
Alta was born premature in 2018, and initially showed no signs of life, forcing doctors to resuscitate her. Severely deprived of oxygen, with severe brain and nerve damage, doctors said the girl had no hope of recovery, court records show.
But Fixler, who holds American and Israeli citizenship and a legal resident of England, said he was encouraged by doctors abroad who said there may not yet be better treatment options available to England’s value-conscious social health system.
The family is currently awaiting a hearing to determine whether the Supreme Court of England will hear their case. No date of hearing has been set.
As the saga progressed, the case garnered international attention and electrified the global Jewish community. Family legal bills—over $340,000 so far—have been paid through crowdfunding donations.
Israel has offered to take Alta Fixler and continue his treatment there. Former President of the country, Reuven Rivlin, has personally advocated Prince Charles of England.
“Many organizations are trying to deal with Alta and save her life and stop pulling the plug and killing that girl,” Rabbi David Niederman, executive director of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn, told The Post.
Israel has offered to take Alta Fixler and continue his treatment there.
Schumer has taken the lead in America, get a visa, and sent a letter to the British ambassador to America, Karen Pierce, demanding that no health decisions be made against the family’s wishes and that they be allowed to travel to America.
“Her father is an American citizen and we will continue to fight until she is allowed to come. Her life is at stake and she is a beautiful 2-year-old little girl,” said Schumer.
Corey Booker and Robert Menendez, with a letter of their own to Pierce, said that their state’s Phoenix Center for Rehabilitation and Pediatrics is ready and ready to take on Alta.
Ten Republican senators have also written letters to President Biden. “We are deeply disturbed that a child of a US citizen is being treated in this manner.”
Along the way, in a country with which we have a deep alliance and special relationship,” he wrote. “We urge you to advocate for Prime Minister Johnson on behalf of the Fixler family.”
Abraham Fixler accused the British government of holding Alta and his family “hostage”.
The White House did not respond to repeated inquiries from The Post.
“Under UK law, decisions regarding the welfare of Alta rest with the independent judiciary, not the British Government. Courts are bound by law to make decisions based on what is in the best interests of the Alta,” New York British consulate representative Toby Usnick told The Post.
https://lovebylife.com/parents-fight-to-save-daughter-on-life-support-after-uk-court-seeks-to-pull-plug/.
‘Would you be willing to pull the plug?” I look her in the eyes. This is usually where the tears start flowing, and the answer invariably is a horrified “No.”
ReplyDeleteAs a coach who works with high-achiever women, I have learned that at the bottom of all our blocks, frustrations, disappointments and pain is a deep-seated sense of conditional worthiness. Most of us live out our lives with a sense that we are only worthy as humans if we meet a certain set of benchmarks that our parents and society have drilled into our heads. If you go to the right college, get the right job, make the right amount of money, have the right kind of family, parent the right way and go to the right kind of synagogue, then you are worthy. If not, you are doomed to a life of harsh self-criticism and constant gnawing feelings that you are not enough.
Long before I heard about Alta Fixsler, my most effective way to break through this thought pattern had been to ask my clients whether the life of a brain-damaged, life-supported young child is worth saving. I ask my clients whether they would be willing to pull the child’s ventilator plug with their own hands. Their emphatic “no” starts the conversation about the absolute worthiness of every human being, not due to any achievement, but simply by virtue of having been brought into the world by God. This is the beginning, middle and end of our worthiness and any achievement is just our way of putting that divinely-inspired gift at the service of others.
Unfortunately, our axiomatic unconditional worthiness is in grave danger. For the past several weeks, a UK hospital has been dead-set about pulling one such child off life support against the expressed wishes of her family and an unprecedented international outcry.
Alta Fixsler is a two-year-old girl who was born prematurely and sustained a severe brain injury. She and her parents are Israeli citizens and hassidic Jews. The hospital decided that Alta was “experiencing pain” and has no quality of life and therefore petitioned the British High Court for permission to remove her life support. Numerous pediatric neurologists contest the hospital’s position and insist that Alta does not feel pain. Still, the court gave the hospital the unilateral decision-making power over the girl’s life.(continued)
(continued) Motivated by the Jewish outlook on the unconditional worthiness of every human life, Alta’s parents have made every effort to save her life and vigorously oppose the hospital’s intentions. Removing life support is prohibited by Alta’s Jewish religion, and is against Israeli Law.
ReplyDeleteHOSPITALS IN both Israel and the US have offered to take Alta into their care, and United Hatzalah Air has offered to fly her to any destination needed. The life-saving effort would not cost the UK National Health Service a penny, yet in scenario that can only be described as Kafkaesque, the doctors in the UK are not willing to release the child to the parents’ family, determined to kill the child instead. The entreaties of dozens of politicians, hundreds of clergymen and numerous human rights activists from around the globe have fallen on deaf ears.
History has taught us that societies that are willing to dispose of its most vulnerable members will have no qualms murdering any human. In 1939, Hitler’s “mercy note” set the stage for Aktion T4, a concerted extermination effort in which physicians were authorized to murder patients “deemed incurably sick after most critical medical examination.” As a result, close to 300,000 mental health patients, children suffering from congenital disease and malformation, and other people with disabilities were involuntarily euthanized. It was a harbinger of things to come as the floodgates of the Holocaust were flung open at the same time.
Alta’s life matters, and not only to her parents. Despite the fact that Alta will never get up from bed, walk or talk, she – like other children and adults in her situation – is creating the greatest social contribution possible. Alta is the beacon of our humanity. It is only by committing to preserving every human life and setting aside any considerations of expediency that we retain our human image and unconditional worthiness. It is only if Alta is worthy enough to continue living that all of us are worthy enough.
Little Alta lives in you. It is that beating heart and life force that wants to keep on living, no matter what. It is your God-given soul that came into the world simply because the world would not be complete without it. Letting Alta be discarded means throwing ourselves into a self-inflicted hell of shame, indignity and toxic considerations of expendability.
I urge you to take a stand. Please write an immediate letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Services Sajid Javid, requesting that Alta not be taken off life support and that she be transferred to a hospital where she will get the best level of care.
It is time to bring little Alta home, for all our sakes.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/why-we-should-everything-to-save-2-year-old-alta-fixsler-comment-674242
As the battle wages leaving the life of a child on life support in the balance, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y was congratulated by the Boro Park leadership for his role in working to save the life of Alta Fixler.
ReplyDeleteWhile her own doctors in Manchester, England, are pushing to end life support for the two-year-old, a decision that has so far been upheld by the U.K. court system against the express wishes of Alta’s parents, who are Orthodox Jews, Senator Schumer has made it public that America has extended a visa for Alta to enter the U.S. The Senator is also publically urging the U.K. to allow the transfer of this child to the U.S. for continued medical treatment.
The Boro Park JCC sent a letter of thanks to Senator Schumer on July 20. The letter of thanks was signed by the Boro Park JCC’s leadership, including its new Executive Board.
"Senator Schumer has given a sense of hope and encouragement to alta's family," says Isaac Stern, BPJCC president, "and for his personal investment in the life of this child, he deserves credit."
“Though the battle continues to preserve the life of this child,” says Avi Greenstein, BPJCC CEO, “the family was heartened by the personal intervention of Majority Leader Schumer. The efforts he has expended towards her survival leaves us all hopeful Alta will have a chance at life in the United States.”
The world waits with bated breath to see if the U.K. courts will uphold the religious rights of the family, the precarious question holding Alta’s life in the balance.
https://boropark24.com/news/boro-park-leadership-thanks-majority-leader-schumer-for-strong-efforts-to-save-child-s-life
The heartbreaking case of the critically ill Alta Fixler is nothing new in Britain. In the past British courts have ruled against parents???? want to give their seriously brain-injured children a fighting chance to survive.
ReplyDeleteIn 2017, a London court ruled against the parents of Charlie Garda[Gard], who desperately tried to remove him from Great Ormond Street Hospital for treatment by American doctors who said they could help him. Charlie died a few months later.
In 2018, Alfie Evans???? The parents lost the court battle to take their child to Italy for treatment.
This is when the government controls all aspects of medical care and has the power to usurp the basic functions of a parent. The notion that strangers in black robes are better equipped than parents capable of making medical decisions for their children is foolish and dangerous.
Unless you want cases like this to not happen in the United States, pray that social medicine doesn’t come to America.
https://granthshala.com/letters-to-the-editor-july-25-2021/
Ten years ago, Avraham Fixler got married and started his life with his wife, Chaya. Two years after their marriage, the couple welcomed a son. After another five and half years, they welcomed their daughter Alta was born. This happy occasion, however, was marred by misfortune. Tragically, Alta was deprived of oxygen at birth, for close to a half hour. This lead to severe brain damage, and Alta began her life attached to a ventilator
ReplyDeleteAt the time, doctors told the Fixlers that it was unlikely that their daughter would survive for 24 hours. Boruch Hashem, their predictions proved wrong, and Alta, beloved and cherished by her family, survived. Unfortunately, Alta is unresponsive and severely limited in her physical capabilities. The doctors said that because she is unresponsive, she has no quality of life, but the Fixlers made sure that they took care of her and gave her the highest quality of life they could under the circumstances.
When after several months, they were able to get her off a ventilator and onto oxygen, the Fixler’s were very happy. At around a year old, the Fixler’s prepared to bring Alta home for the first time. They had prepared the house for her and made sure that they would have everything required to tend to Alta’s needs. This included the oxygen tanks she would need to maintain her breathing. However, on a Motzei Shabbos, Avraham got a call from the hospital saying that they would be moving Alta from the NICU to the ICU at the pediatric hospital.
There was supposed to be a meeting to discuss the move of location and to arrange for her continued care, but then Avraham received a call that she was being moved, to a location where there would be no doctors, just a nursing staff, in direct contradiction to what had been previously discussed and arranged.
She was moved to a regular ward, attended to without the experience or equipment that would be in an NICU. Two weeks later, her condition had deteriorated, and she needed to go back on a ventilator. In Avaraham’s opinion, this was the direct result of being moved to a ward where she couldn’t be taken care of properly. He points out that currently his daughter is on CPAP level, the lowest level of breathing assistance provided by a ventilator. However, since that point, the hospital said that Alta would not being going off the ventilator. They told the Fixler’s should prepare other plans, and that bringing Alta home was no longer an option.
Avraham suggested that he bring his daughter home, and that he would provide his own ventilator and nursing staff. He knew that his good friends in the Manchester community would help him out with this endeavor. But at the next meeting the doctors began to tell Avraham that his daughter was suffering a lot of pain. Avraham responded by saying that he knows his daughter well, could recognize that she was not suffering, and that no doctor had told him up until this point that his daughter was feeling pain
It was then Avraham realized what their plan was. Although the hospital’s staff had feigned a willingness to cooperate and claimed that they were trying to work on a plan, in fact they were working to establish a legal basis to rachmana litzlan remove his daughter from life support. The best legal reasoning for such a decision is pain and quality of life, so to make this claim exactly when she had gone back on a ventilator was the strategy of the medical staff all along. They claimed that it was visually obvious that Alta was suffering but Avraham insisted that his daughter was not reacting with pain to any element of her care. Medical experts from the US reviewed scans of the girls brain and said that she is not suffering any pain at all.
(continued)
(continued)The hospital and its advisory board then went to court, arguing that Alta should be removed from the ventilator. The case was heard in the high court of London from May 19 through May 21. The two sides spoke on the first two days. The Fixler’s made three major points in their defense to the court. They argued that the religious considerations of the family ought to be considered. Additionally, both the Fixlers and their daughter are not UK citizens, and therefore the UK does not have jurisdiction to make such a momentous decision for them. Finally, they argued that the family ultimately should be able to have a say in what happens in their child’s life.
ReplyDeleteThe deliberations and decision came down on the third day of the trial. Ultimately the judge said while that he was not fully convinced that the doctors had proven that the child was suffering, he felt he should side with the medical professionals. Despite all the arguments about jurisdiction, citizenship, religious considerations and everything else, the judge has ruled that Alta Fixler’s life should end.
The decision came as a horrible blow to the Fixlers. There is very little recourse for the family. Ordinarily, there would be hopes of overturning the decision on appeal. But In a cruel, Kafkaesque parody of justice, under UK law, a request for an appeal in this case must be made from the same judge who ruled against the Fixlers originally.
Another option is to ask the court of appeals, but in that case the appellant must provide a new reason, or a variation on his original reason, and the Fixlers say there is not much that can be changed about their original heartfelt plea.
A last-ditch hope is to make the appeal that if the child should be repatriated to Israel due to her citizenship. He has sought help from medical experts in the USA such as Chayim arichim. There are a few hospitals in Israel that have already said would be happy to take on the Alta and provide for her care.
https://thechesedfund.com/savingalta/fundraiser?aff=6
By the time you read this column, Alta Fixler may no longer be with us in this world. Alta is a 2-year-old who is severely disabled. Born premature, she showed no signs of life until doctors resuscitated her and put her on a ventilator. After spending her entire existence on life support, Royal Manchester Children's Hospital has now decided that her time is up, at the objection of her parents. And the parents are running out of options.
ReplyDeleteThe Fixler family are Hasidic Jews with Israeli citizenship. They want to bring her to Israel, where doctors are willing to see if they can do anything for her. A charity has offered the family a free plane ride wherever they want to take her -- there's a visa for her to come to the United States as well (her father is also an American citizen). Neither the British High Court nor the European Court of Appeals will help her mother and father. A judge on the High Court, Alistair MacDonald, went so far as to say that Alta has no religious-liberty rights because we don't know that Alta would share her family's values. Alta Fixler is 2 years old! Parents make those kinds of decisions for their young children. Or at least that's the way it should be.
Manchester Children's Hospital says that Alta is in constant pain, but her parents dispute that. A judge on the High Court dismissed the opinion and observations of her parents and their rabbi because none of them are "medically qualified." He wrote that Alta "has and will continue to have minimal or no awareness of her family and social relationships, minimal or no ability to respond to external stimuli so as to take comfort or enjoyment from those who love her or the world around her and engage in the enlargement of knowledge of her world."
He said that "continuing life-sustaining treatment will confine Alta to being kept alive for the remainder of her life in a hospital room without windows, her life sustained by machines in a world she cannot meaningfully perceive or connect with."
Should doctors and judges be determining what makes for a meaningful life? Should parents be stripped of their rights to care for their child? No one thinks the chances of Alta recovering are very good, but does that mean her life should be ended, especially when her parents don't want it to?
And forget Alta's life; the court won't even let her die on her family's terms. The court refused to allow Alta to be released from her hospital prison so that she could be taken off life support in Israel, where she would be surrounded by her physical and religious families, because there would be "no medical benefit."
But what about spiritual benefit, to both Alta and her grieving family and friends? But the court appears to be completely uninterested in the feelings of Alta's parents.
This case is tragic and cruel. There appear to be no good answers. But Britain seems determined to see this child die within its borders, on its timetable. The judges and doctors have the best of intentions: an alleviation of suffering. But the doctors aren't God. Courts aren't, either. And while I certainly agree that there are times when palliative care is perfectly appropriate and humane, the way this is all happening is chilling. The temporal isn't everything, and we should all be able to agree that the spiritual care of a child is well within parents' rights.
If you are a person who prays, keep the Fixlers, all of them, in your prayers. Extreme cases like this expose our dangerous, dehumanizing secularization in the West.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kathrynlopez/2021/08/07/no-good-answers-in-britain-n2593727
Last-minute rabbinic appeal on behalf of Alta Fixler
ReplyDeleteAugust 8, 2021
Regarding the case of Alta Fixsler, who is to be disconnected from a ventilator following a decision of the Supreme Court for the United Kingdom, Rabbi Moshe B. Parnes, Southern Regional Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, made the following statement:
Judaism recognizes the sacred value of every human life. Once a child has been placed on a ventilator, Jewish law unequivocally prohibits deliberately discontinuing the ventilation so as to hasten the approach of death, as this is akin to murder. Similarly, to deny food to any person is simply a cruel act. We appeal to the good conscience and high ethical standards of Britons to respect the child’s religious traditions, and permit the helpless child to be transferred to a facility in America or to Israel willing to continue to provide the highest standards of medical care.
https://coalitionforjewishvalues.org/2021/08/a-last-minute-appeal-regarding-alta-fixler/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-last-minute-appeal-regarding-alta-fixler
Let Alta Fixsler Go
ReplyDeleteJewish law and values come up against the U.K.’s National Health Service.
By
William McGurn
Aug. 9, 2021 6:30 pm ET
Abraham Fixsler asks that his daughter be sent to Israel, where he is a citizen, before she is taken off life support in Manchester, England.
Professionals caring for her conclude, literally, that it is in her best interests to be dead. Four years back there was poor Charlie Gard, for whom the Great Ormond Street Hospital deemed death a better option than being allowed to travel overseas for experimental treatment. A year later the parents of 6-month-old Alfie Evans were likewise denied the opportunity to take up Pope Francis ’ offer to have their son treated at Rome’s Bambino Gesù Hospital.
Now, alas, comes little Alta’s turn. It would be one thing if the authorities were saying simply that they can no longer justify the expense of extraordinary life support for someone with no prospect of recovery. Medicine has always had to factor in cost, especially when others are picking up the tab.
But that is not an issue here. The medical professionals treating her are insisting on something more monstrous: That even if it wouldn’t cost the NHS a penny, Alta Fixsler must be denied the possibility of treatment elsewhere because the experts and her assigned guardian have concluded, as the Hon. Mr. Justice Alistair MacDonald ably summed up in his decision, that she “has no quality of life” and “the burdens of Alta’s life outweigh any benefits.”
This is, of course, a moral judgment, not a medical one. On its own terms, it isn’t clear why it is owed any more deference than the contending moral calculus raised by Alta’s parents. Their faith, they say, is rooted in “the sanctity of life,” the “fundamental Jewish belief that human life, no matter how compromised, is invaluable.”
The Fixslers further note that Judaism isn’t simply a set of beliefs but a way of life, with guidance on everything from what they eat to how they pray to their obligations to others. The rabbis Alta’s parents consulted acknowledge Jewish law doesn’t always require patients be put on life support. But to remove it after it has been applied, they say, would hasten death and constitute a grave sin.(continued)
(continued)The justification for forbidding the Fixslers to take Alta to another hospital overseas rests largely on the grounds she might experience pain in transit. Think about that. Millions of people live with significant daily pain and suffering. Does this pain mean their lives have any less worth?
ReplyDeleteAh, our new barbarians say, such people are conscious, able to make that calculation for themselves. Alta cannot, and she has no hope of getting better.
But even the doctors admit they can’t say for sure whether or how Alta experiences pain. Even so, they insist their judgment must be final and absolute, illuminating the death wish lurking behind so much of modern notions of “compassion,” which here elevates avoiding even the possibility of pain above all else, including living.
And if it comes to life-or-death decisions, are these best left to the courts and the clinicians? Or might there be something to be said in cases like Alta’s for deferring to the two people who love her most, her mom and dad—Abraham and Chaya Fixsler ?
The hopeful news is that, as the U.K. Supreme Court considers whether to weigh in, Alta has attracted international support. Former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has personally appealed to Prince Charles to intervene. This side of the pond, Alta is bringing together conservative Republicans such as Sen. Mario Rubio and liberal Democrats such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has already secured a visa for Alta to come to the U.S.
Certainly there’s an argument for withdrawing life support and precluding further treatment in such conditions, as the British authorities say. But not for the assumption on which their decision rests, which is that Jewish moral reasoning and judgments are inherently inferior to their own. For if little Alta Fixsler’s story tells us anything, it is that the Jewish prophets and sages and their teachings on the inviolable sanctity of each human life are more relevant for our world than they’ve ever been.
Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/alta-fixsler-medical-treatment-national-health-service-england-life-support-11628539982
"But at the next meeting the doctors began to tell Avraham that his daughter was suffering a lot of pain. Avraham responded by saying that he knows his daughter well, could recognize that she was not suffering, and that no doctor had told him up until this point that his daughter was feeling pain." (August 7, 2021 at 10:03 PM entry above)
ReplyDeleteA parent's perception of whether their child is in pain should be given priority over any pundit's perception. Parents are acutely attuned to pain in their children and they intuit this well. Time after time, I have heard arguments that existence in a comatose state is "painful". Alta's state may be close to comatose. Such contentions seem more likely projection than a reflection of the patient's internal state. Dystonia or myoclonus do not have to be painful and, if there is evidence that they are, attempts can be made to remedy this. If they are, likely the parent would be advocating treatment.