Let Alta Fixsler Go

In the Book of Exodus, the Lord tells the children of Israel that he is a jealous God and warns them not to put others before him. Today the plight of a 2-year-old Jewish girl named Alta Fixsler suggests the U.K.'s National Health Service has come to regard its own authority with an almost Old Testament jealousy. Alta sustained a severe brain injury and was born showing no signs of life until she was resuscitated. Today she is a patient at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. Her parents, who are Hasidic Jews and Israeli citizens (her father is also a U.S. citizen), wish to take her overseas for treatment, to Israel or the U.S. The U.K. health authorities have refused to let her go, while also insisting her life-sustaining treatment end.