Slovenia to hold new referendum on contested assisted dying law – Firstpost

Slovenia held a new referendum on Sunday on whether a law legalizing assisted dying would be implemented or suspended after critics launched a campaign against the law.

Several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, allow terminally ill people to receive medical assistance in ending their lives.

Slovenia’s parliament approved a law allowing assisted dying in July after supporting it in a 2024 referendum.

But a new vote was called after a citizens’ group backed by the Catholic Church and the conservative parliamentary opposition collected 46,000 signatures in favor of a repeat vote, more than the required 40,000.

The law will remain in place unless a majority of participants representing at least 20 percent of the 1.7 million eligible voters reject it.

Polls open at 7:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) and close 12 hours later, with the first partial results expected late Sunday.

‘dignity’

Under the controversial law, which was to take effect this year, terminally ill patients will have the right to aid in dying if their suffering is unbearable and all treatment options have been exhausted.

If treatment does not provide any reasonable prospect of improvement or improvement in the patient’s condition, it also allows assisted dying, but not to eliminate the unbearable suffering from mental illness.

Prime Minister Robert Golob, who voted in advance, has urged citizens to support the law “so that each of us can decide for ourselves how and with what dignity we will end our lives”.

The group opposing the law, called Voice for the Children and the Family, has accused the government of using the law to “poison” sick and elderly people.

The Catholic Church has stated that allowing assisted death is “contrary to the foundations of the Gospel, natural law and human dignity”.

According to a poll published this week by the Dnevnik daily based on 700 responses, about 54 percent of citizens support legalizing assisted death, about 31 percent oppose it and 15 percent are undecided.

55 percent supported the law in June 2024.

If a majority of voters oppose the new law on Sunday, Parliament cannot vote again on a bill related to the same issue in the next 12 months.

While many European countries already allow terminally ill people to seek medical assistance to end their lives, in others it remains a crime even in cases of severe suffering.

In May, the lower house of the French parliament approved a right-to-die bill in the first reading. The British Parliament is debating similar legislation.