A majority of Slovenians voting in a referendum have opposed a law seeking to legalise assisted suicide. Welcoming the result, the head of the No campaign said: “We are witnessing a miracle. The culture of life has defeated the cult of death.”
The referendum was held after critics of a law passed in July mounted a campaign against the legislation, gathering more than the 40,000 signatures required for a repeat of a 2024 referendum which had approved assisted suicide.
Around 53 percent of voters yesterday rejected the law, while 47 percent voted in favour – meaning the implementation of the July law will be suspended for at least one year when parliament will vote on the issue again.
Ales Primc, a conservative activist who headed up the Voice for the Children and the Family organisation that brought together the No campaign, said that “Compassion has won” as had “solidarity and justice”.
He told reporters that input from medical practitioners opposing assisted suicide was crucial to the win for the No side. Opponents of the law had called for further investment in palliative care and supports for those in need of care.
“Slovenia has rejected the government’s health, pension, and social reform based on death by poisoning,” Mr Primc also said according to Slovenian news agency STA.
“We are witnessing a miracle. The culture of life has defeated the cult of death,” Mr Primc said after the No victory.
In Ireland, medical bodies such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Physicians have opposed legalising assisted suicide, while a survey by the Irish Palliative Medicine Consultants’ Association found that 88 percent of palliative medicine consultants opposed assisted suicide.
The Slovenian proposal would have legalised assisted suicide in cases where a patient had no reasonable prospect of recovery or improvement after being diagnosed with a terminal condition, and where a patient decided their suffering was unbearable and all treatment options had been exhausted.
In the 2024, 55 percent had backed the law, while prior to Sunday’s vote, a poll showed that some 54 percent were in favour of it, while 31 percent opposed it and 15 percent were undecided, France 24 reported. No campaigners said that the polls had got it wrong and that the win showed that voters were increasing engaging with the message that life should be protected in law.
The Catholic Church and civil initiatives such as “Za življenje” (For Life), had also campaigned for a No vote, which was welcomed the victory as a defence of the sanctity of life and a rejection of what critics said would have been a dangerous slippery slope diminishing the value of the lives of vulnerable patients.
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, and Portugal have fully legalised assisted suicide, while Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Germany, also permit some form of euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, had urged citizens to back the law “so that each of us can decide for ourselves how and with what dignity we will end our lives”
After the No vote, he insisted that “this is a question of dignity, human rights and individual choice. That fight will not stop.”