NEW DELHI: Centre on Thursday told Supreme Court that judiciary can’t decide to what extent free treatment is to be given to children afflicted with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), as uncertified gene therapy for nearly 3,500 such babies would cost India Rs 35-40,000 crore a year.
Attorney general R Venkataramani & additional solicitor general N Venkatraman told a bench of Justices Surya Kant & Ujjal Bhuyan that govt has taken a policy decision to cap free treatment cost at Rs 50 lakh per annum per child and that the IAF corporal’s child, whose mother has petitioned Supreme Court, has already been given treatment worth Rs 14 lakh.
Court said free treatment of the child should continue unhindered at Army R&R hospital. However, the law officers said no other country has provided for free treatment of SMA as the therapy has not been medically sanctified as fruitful by experts.
They said Delhi high court had ordered that treatment of all SMA afflicted children be borne by Centre, but Supreme Court has recently stayed it given the huge financial strain that would be caused to the exchequer. The bench agreed that the treatment would be given free of cost till further orders and that it would examine later the policy of free treatment to such patients.
