Slovenia’s parliament had accepted a legislation in July, permitting assisted dying after a 2024 referendum supported it.
Printed On 23 Nov 2025
Slovenians have rejected in a referendum a legislation that allowed terminally in poor health adults to finish their lives, after critics mounted a marketing campaign towards the laws.
About 53 p.c of 1.7 million eligible voters voted towards the legislation that proposed legalising assisted dying, in line with preliminary outcomes launched by the election authorities on Sunday.
Really useful Tales
checklist of 4 objectsfinish of checklist
The outcomes imply the legislation’s implementation can be suspended for no less than one yr. Slovenia’s parliament had approved the law in July, permitting assisted dying after a 2024 referendum supported it.
However the new vote was known as after a civil group, backed by the Catholic Church and the conservative parliamentary opposition, gathered greater than the 40,000 signatures required for a repeat.
Ales Primc, head of Voice for the Youngsters and the Household, the NGO that organised the no vote marketing campaign, reacted to the outcomes, saying “solidarity and justice” had received.
“We’re witnessing a miracle. The tradition of life has defeated the cult of loss of life,” Primc stated after the vote.
Underneath the disputed legislation, terminally in poor health sufferers would have had the best to help in dying if their struggling was insufferable and all remedy choices had been exhausted.
It might even have allowed for assisted dying if remedy gives had no cheap prospect of restoration or enchancment within the affected person’s situation, however to not finish insufferable affected by psychological sickness.
Prime Minister Robert Golob had urged residents to again the legislation “so that every of us can resolve for ourselves how and with what dignity we’ll finish our lives”.
However the Catholic Church has stated permitting assisted dying “contradicts the foundations of the Gospel, pure legislation and human dignity”.
In June 2024, 55 p.c had backed the legislation.
Turnout at Sunday’s referendum was 40.9 p.c – simply sufficient for the no vote to satisfy the edge.
A number of European international locations, together with Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, permit terminally in poor health individuals to obtain medical assist to finish their lives. Nonetheless, it stays against the law in others, even in instances of extreme struggling.
In Could, France’s decrease home of parliament approved a right-to-die bill in a primary studying. The British parliament is debating related laws.
