Slovenians Reject Law That Legalizes Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Patients

The recent referendum was triggered after opponents collected more than 40,000 signatures from people, calling for another vote.

A voter casts her ballot at a polling station during the referendum on assisted dying for terminally ill patients, in Domzale, Slovenia, Nov. 23, 2025. Darko Bandic/AP Photo

Slovenian voters turned down legislation that sought to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill individuals in the European nation.

Preliminary results released by the election commission show that about 53 percent of voters rejected the bill in the Nov. 23 referendum, while 46 percent supported it.

The results effectively suspend the law’s implementation. Slovenia’s parliament initially passed the bill in July 2024 after voters supported it in that year’s nonbinding referendum.

The recent referendum was triggered after opponents collected more than 40,000 signatures from people, calling for another vote on the law.

“Compassion has won,” Ales Primc, the activist who led the campaign against assisted dying, said after the vote. “Slovenia has rejected the government’s health, pension, and social reform based on death by poisoning.”

Under the bill, terminally ill people who faced unbearable illness or had no prospect of recovery would be granted the right to assisted dying. They would be able to administer the lethal medication themselves after receiving approval from two doctors and completing a period of consultation. The law did not apply to people with mental health conditions.

Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob had earlier called on voters to back the legislation. The government argued that the law would let terminally ill people decide how and when to end their suffering.

“This is not a political issue; it has always been a matter of dignity, human rights, and individual choice,” Golob said in a statement to news outlets following the vote.

Opponents included conservative groups, some doctors’ associations, and the Catholic church. They said that the law went against Slovenia’s constitution and that the state should work to provide better palliative care instead.

Before the vote, Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar emphasized the importance of citizens participating in the referendum. Nearly 41 percent of 1.7 million eligible voters cast their ballots, according to the State Electoral Commission.

“It is right for us as individuals to say what we think about a certain topic,” Musar said. “It is right for us to tell politicians what we think is right and what we think is wrong.”

At least nine countries in Europe allow some form of assisted dying for terminally ill patients, including Austria, which legalized the practice in 2022 after its constitutional court lifted the ban.

In countries such as England, assisting someone to end their life can lead to criminal charges even if the person is terminally ill, according to the nonprofit Campaign for Dignity in Dying’s website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.