Slovenians began voting on a referendum Saturday to decide whether a law legalising assisted dying will be enforced or suspended. The vote comes after a campaign by critics, including the Catholic Church and conservative political groups, who gathered 46,000 signatures to trigger a repeat vote, surpassing the 40,000 required.
The law, approved by parliament in July following a 2024 referendum, allows terminally ill, lucid patients to request medical assistance to end their lives if their suffering is unbearable and all treatment options have been exhausted. It also permits assisted dying when treatment offers no reasonable prospect of recovery, but does not cover mental illness as a cause for ending life.
Polls opened at 6 a.m. Irish time and will close at 6 p.m., with first partial results expected later in the evening. The law will take effect unless a majority of voters reject it, representing at least 20% of Slovenia’s 1.7 million eligible voters.
At Ljubljana’s largest polling station, the Stozice sports hall, voters expressed differing opinions. Romana Hocevar, a 63-year-old stage four cancer patient, said she would support the law. “I would not like to suffer. I’ve seen my father die of cancer and my mother suffer with dementia,” she said.
Vid Ursic, a 24-year-old student, said he supported the referendum because it allowed citizens to make choices about their own lives. “It’s good that we get to vote on relevant issues. People should decide for themselves,” he said.
Opposition voices were also present. Marija Unuk, in her late 50s, said she would vote against the law, adding, “I support the culture of life, not the culture of death.” The group leading the challenge, Voice for the Children and the Family, accused the government of using the law to “poison” ill and elderly people. The Catholic Church described assisted dying as contradicting the foundations of the Gospel, natural law, and human dignity.
Prime Minister Robert Golob, who voted in advance, urged citizens to back the law, saying it allows individuals to choose “how and with what dignity we will end our lives.”
Public support for the legislation has remained stable. A recent poll by the Dnevnik daily indicated that 54% of citizens support legalising assisted dying, 31% oppose it, and 15% remain undecided. In June 2024, 55% backed the law.
If voters reject the law in this referendum, parliament will be barred from passing similar legislation for at least 12 months. Slovenia joins several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, in allowing medical assistance for terminally ill patients, while other nations continue to criminalise the practice.
In May, France’s lower house of parliament approved a right-to-die bill in a first reading, and the British parliament is currently debating similar legislation, reflecting a broader European debate over assisted dying.
