Slovenia will hold a referendum this weekend on whether to allow physician-assisted suicide.
The country’s parliament voted to legalize the practice in July, but a civil society group backed by the conservative opposition and the Catholic Church managed to force a referendum on the issue after collecting 40,000 signatures.
The law would allow doctors to help conscious, terminally ill patients kill themselves if their suffering is judged to be ‘unbearable’ and all treatment options have been exhausted. It would also permit assisted suicide when treatment offers no realistic prospect of recovery or improvement, but it would not apply to cases of unbearable suffering resulting solely from mental illness.
In a previous referendum held in 2024, 55% of Slovenians backed the practice. However, Slovenian law allows civil groups that gather at least 40,000 citizens’ signatures to demand a re-vote on laws passed by parliament.
Ahead of this latest referendum, seven religious communities in Slovenia have spoken out against the bill. “Every human life has inalienable value until natural death,” representatives said at a press conference on Wednesday, where they signed a joint statement in opposition to the bill.
The conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) argued that the law would “open the door to the culture of death, the loss of human dignity, and the minimization of the value of life.”
On Wednesday, November 19, the party wrote on X:
We invite you to exercise your right and duty and vote AGAINST the culture of death—for life, dignity and the values that build our community.
Slovenia’s Commission for Medical Ethics also continues to oppose the bill, arguing that it contains insurmountable ethical risks.
The proposal also raises legal questions, as the Slovenian Constitution states that human life is inviolable, which could mean that a constitutional amendment may be needed for full implementation of the law.
For the referendum to be successful, a majority of voters, representing at least 20% of eligible citizens, have to vote against the law.
Several European countries, including Switzerland and Austria, already allow physicians to help terminally ill people commit suicide.
Nejc Povirk, journalist and human rights activist, previously told europeanconservative.com.:
When autonomy becomes the supreme value, eligibility for assisted suicide tends to expand over time. This shift also affects societal attitudes, promoting the idea that at some point, the vulnerable have a duty not to be a burden to the society.
