First, euthanasia campaigners sell death under the banner of “choice.” Then, they take away your choices.
On September 27, 68.1 percent of voters in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, approved a new requirement that compels hospitals and elder care homes – including Christian establishments – to perpetrate assisted suicide on their premises. At least 30 Christian institutions still refuse the practice and will be impacted by the referendum vote.
“Voters in Zurich canton approved changes to the Patientinnen- und Patientengesetz (Patients Act) and Gesundheitsgesetz (Health Act) requiring hospitals and care homes to make assisted suicide possible within their facilities,” reported the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe.
“The proposal received 68.1% of the vote on 27 September 2026. Christian institutions will be bound by the requirement despite their conscientious objections. According to PRO, implementation is expected in spring 2027. Previously, hospitals and private care homes outside the existing municipal requirement could decide whether to refuse assisted suicide.”
Of course, this means that those who wish to be cared for or receive medical help in an institution that does not kill will have no place to go. According to Swiss news site SRF:
Markus Schaaf, the nursing home director and a member of the cantonal parliament for the Evangelical People’s Party (EVP), was particularly vocal in his opposition to the proposal. He told SRF that he was disappointed but not surprised by the result, as it would eliminate any freedom of choice: Residents could no longer choose between a nursing home that tolerated assisted suicide and one that did not.
Schaaf is not the only one speaking out. Daniel Milli, director of the Haus St. Otmar, a care home connected with the Catholic St. Anton parish, stated that ending the lives of residents runs contrary to their life-affirming mission, and emphasized that prospective residents and their families were told prior to admission that assisted suicide is prohibited at Haus St. Otmar. Bishop Joseph Maria Bonnemain of the Diocese of Chur also expressed his opposition to the measure in a statement on September 27.
“Where the termination of a life is legally regulated and socially accepted as a possible response to severe suffering, our view of vulnerability, dependence, and dignity changes,” he stated. “A person’s dignity does not depend on whether they are healthy, capable, autonomous, or free from pain. It remains, it must remain inviolable – especially in illness, despair, and at the end of life.”
“Many people who express a wish to die don’t simply want to die,” Bonnemain added. “They don’t want to be alone, be a burden to anyone, suffer unbearable pain, or lose control over their lives. Our society must respond to this with reliable support: with good palliative care, human connection, psychological and pastoral support, as well as concrete relief for family members and good working conditions for nursing staff.”
In the U.K. this year, assisted suicide advocates admitted that religious institutions would be forced to accept the practice. Labour MP Lewis Atkinson spoke against proposed protections that would permit hospices and care homes to refuse assisted suicide on their premises on March 19, stating that killing people by lethal injection would become part of end-of-life services and that “We would not accept such stipulations on other healthcare services.” Fortunately, Parliament killed the bill, instead.
Here in Canada, the Globe and Mail recently published an editorial by Andre Picard calling for the “secularization” of Catholic hospitals due to their refusal to permit assisted suicide and abortion. He also made it clear that other Christian institutions that care for the vulnerable would be next, noting ominously: “Many long-term care homes with religious affiliations also refuse to allow MAiD on their premises.”
For those in the Canton of Zurich who wish to be cared for by those who will not kill, that choice has been taken away from them. If Andre Picard and Canada’s suicide campaigners get their way, the same thing will happen in Canada. Christian institutions that refuse to kill are to be either euthanized or, essentially, stolen by the state.