• English
  • עברית

Do Israeli courts have the authority to interfere in urgent health issues concerning a child, against a parent's wishes?

Yes! For example, in July 2011, Tel Aviv Family Court exercised its jurisdiction to intervene concerning a minor's health and gave an order permitting an operation to amputate a child's arm, in order to remove a cancerous growth and save her life. The mother, the child's sole parent and custodian, had objected.

The Tel Aviv hospital and the Ministry of Health had applied for permission to perform the life-saving operation, which they considered necessary to save the minor's life. The court overruled the mother's objections, saving they clashed with the minor's good. It ordered the operation, after receiving the opinions of several medical experts, ruling that it had "no choice", as the child herself acknowledged , and agreeing with their conclusion that without the operation the cancerous growth would spread from the bone to soft tissue and to the lung, and would result in the child's death.