Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

"Swiss Christian nursing home must allow assisted suicide"

Story here.  A bit:

A Swiss court has ruled that a Christian nursing home must either permit
assisted suicide on its premises or give up its charitable status.

The nursing home, which is run by the Salvation Army, the UK-based
Christian charity, lost a legal challenge to new assisted suicide rules.

The regulations, introduced about a year ago, compel charities caring for
the sick and elderly to offer assisted suicide when a patient or resident
requests it.

The nursing home objected on the grounds that the law violated the core
religious beliefs of the Salvation Army and that it represented an affront
to freedom of conscience.

But the Federal Court rejected the complaint of the home, which is
situated in the canton of Neuchatel, and ruled that individuals have the
right to decide how and when they would like to end their lives.

According to a report on Swiss Radio In English, the judges said the only
way the home could avoid its legal obligations to permit assisted suicide
was to surrender its charitable status. . . .

Expect more of this, and on our side of the Atlantic, too.  The court's basic "move" is one that I think we can expect regulators and legislators to adopt (and activists to demand) in a variety of contexts where religious institutions' religiously motivated practices and commitments conflict with policy, especially in the bioethics and antidiscrimination contexts.

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2016/10/swiss-christian-nursing-home-must-allow-assisted-suicide.html

Garnett, Rick | Permalink