CV NEWS FEED // Two parents in Switzerland who recently lost custody of their teenage daughter for opposing her “gender transition” must hand over documents for her legal “sex change” under threat of criminal charges, a Swiss court recently ruled.
CatholicVote previously reported that the Swiss government removed the couple’s 16-year-old daughter from their custody in April 2023 and placed her in a government-funded youth shelter to pursue gender transition treatment. The parents believe that a person cannot change their sex. They had been taking their daughter to a mental health professional.
In February 2024, a court ordered the parents to hand over documents that would allow their daughter to legally register as “male.” The parents refused and appealed the order. The higher court, known as the Court of Justice, ruled against the parents and ordered them to surrender the documents under threat of criminal charges.
According to a news release from Alliance Defending Freedom International, a nonprofit law firm representing the parents, the court upheld the lower court’s previous ruling based on Article 30b of the Swiss Civil Code, which states that “parental consent is not required when the child capable of discernment is over 16 years of age”.
The court reportedly ruled that “deciding on one’s own identity is a strictly personal right,” against ADF International’s arguments that a teenager cannot make a fully informed decision about the consequences and implications of a gender transition. The defendants also pointed out that the daughter is already struggling with her mental health, another factor that should dissuade the court from ruling against the parents.
“The court held a legal ‘sex change’ could be considered in isolation from other ‘transition’ measures,” ADF International stated, adding that research has shown there to be a path from a “social transition” to life-altering and irreversible “medical interventions” like puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries.
The father, speaking anonymously for the family’s safety and protection, told ADF International that he and his wife are “deeply saddened that this nightmare situation continues.”
“The state should not have this power. If this can happen to us, it can happen to other parents,” he said. “We will not give up trying to protect our daughter and will seek to appeal this decision.”
Dr. Felix Böllmann, lead ADF International lawyer on the case, said the court committed a “grave injustice in failing to recognise the fundamental rights of these parents to care for their daughter.”
“They have every right to withhold their consent to a so-called ‘sex change’, given the vulnerable state of the minor concerned and that such a step could pave the way for harmful and potentially irreversible physical ‘transition,’” he said, adding:
The court should uphold the rights of parents acting in the best interest of their child, instead of weaponizing the law to advance dangerous ideologies that drive a wedge between parents and children and increase the likelihood of psychological and bodily harm.
Böllmann also pointed to the United Kingdom, where the High Court recently found that puberty blockers are associated with “substantial risks” and ruled that they could legally be banned.
“Switzerland should follow the UK’s example and ultimately restore parental rights,” Böllmann stated.
As the Court of Justice is the highest court in the canton of Geneva, the parents are now taking the case to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.