The law would enable mentally competent and terminally ill patients to take lethal medication
In a referendum, Slovenians have blocked an assisted dying bill that would allow mentally competent and terminally ill patients to administer lethal medication to themselves, reported the Associated Press.
Per preliminary results published by election authorities, 53 percent of voters were against the legislation while 46 percent were for it. About 41 percent of the population voted in the referendum, according to the State Electoral Commission.
Under the law, terminally ill patients or those experiencing severe pain could take lethal medication following a consultation period and with permission from two doctors. Mentally ill people would not be covered.
The assisted dying law was initially passed in July 2024 following a nonbinding referendum wherein voters backed the legislation. However, another vote was called after more than 40,000 opposed the law.
With the results of the current vote, the assisted dying bill has been suspended.
“Compassion has won. Slovenia has rejected the government’s health, pension and social reform based on death by poisoning,” said conservative activist Ales Primc, who spearheaded opposition to the law, in a statement published by AP News.
Primc was joined by some doctors’ associations and the Catholic church in rejecting the law. The opponents claimed that the bill breached Slovenia’s constitution and called for improvements to palliative care.
Prime minister Robert Golob and his government had supported the bill, with Golob saying in a statement published by AP News that “this is not a political issue, it has always been a matter of dignity, human rights, and individual choice.” The law’s supporters expressed their disappointment with the election’s outcome but displayed conviction that a new bill would be passed.
President Natasa Pirc Musar highlighted the importance of citizens voting on the matter.
“It is right for us as individuals to say what we think about a certain topic. It is right for us to tell politicians what we think is right and what we think is wrong,” she said in a statement published by AP News.
Other EU countries like Austria have passed assisted dying legislation.
