On Sunday, Slovenians voted to suspend a new law legalizing euthanasia in a referendum held after critics campaigned against the legislation. This was reported by Yahoo, writes UNN.
Details
About 53% of voters opposed the law, while 47% voted "for," meaning its implementation will be suspended for at least one year.
The Slovenian parliament passed the law in July, allowing euthanasia after a 2024 referendum supported it.
But a new vote was called after a public organization — supported by the Catholic Church and the conservative parliamentary opposition — collected 46,000 signatures in favor of a repeat referendum, exceeding the required 40,000.
The result means that parliament cannot vote on a bill on the same issue again for the next 12 months.
Aleš Primc, head of the organization "Voice for Children and Family," an NGO that organized the campaign against the law, commented on the results, stating that "solidarity and justice" had won.
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Several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, allow terminally ill people to receive medical assistance to end their lives.
Under the contested law, which was to come into force this year, conscious terminally ill patients would have the right to euthanasia if their suffering was unbearable and all treatment options had been exhausted.
The law would also allow euthanasia if the proposed treatment had no reasonable prospect of recovery or improvement of the patient's condition, but not for ending unbearable suffering caused by mental illness.
Recall
In June, referendums were held in Slovenia on the legalization of cannabis for medical and personal use, as well as on euthanasia, and voters supported all three proposals.