Alta Fixsler’s life support withdrawn - The Jewish Chronicle

A seriously ill toddler whose parents lost their legal fight to keep her alive died with her parents by her side after her life sustaining treatment was withdrawn. A spokesman for Alta Fixsler’s family confirmed the news in a statement on Monday. Her "life support was turned off this afternoon and she died at the hospice with her parents by her side,” he said. A funeral took place on Monday evening and Alta is to be laid to rest in a cemetery outside Jerusalem. The Board of Deputies extended its condolences to the family, with president Marie van der Zyl wishing Alta’s parents “a long life and that they should know no more sorrow in the years ahead.” The case drew wide media coverage and interventions from prominent public figures such as former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and US Senator Chuck Schumer. Alta had been under the care of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, where she was born with a catastrophic brain injury, unable to eat or breathe without help. The strictly-Orthodox family had said that ending her life-sustaining treatment would go against their faith, but doctors argued she had no chance of recovery and was unable to experience pleasure but did feel pain. 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. The family also lost their battle earlier this month over the location at which her life support could be withdrawn. The family had sought to discontinue treatment at home but Justice MacDonald ruled against it.