Slovenians began voting Sunday in a new referendum that shall decide if legislation legalising 'assisted dying' will be enforced or suspended.
Earlier, the Slovenian parliament had approved the law in July, permitting assisted dying following the 2024 referendum that supported it.
However, a new vote was called for after a civil group, backed by the Catholic Church and the conservative parliamentary Opposition, gathered over 46,000 signatures in favour of a repeat, exceeding the necessary 40,000 signatures.
Polls opened at 7:00 am (0600 GMT) and will close 12 hours later. Initial and partial results are expected later today. The law will come into force unless most of the participants, representing at least 20 per cent of the 1.7 million eligible voters, reject it.
Prime Minister Robert Golob, who voted in the poll, stressed that 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 poll gains global significance, now, after Annaliese Holland, a 25-year-old woman from Adelaide, South Australia, made headlines a couple of days back, after she opted for voluntary assisted dying after years of battling a rare, incurable neurological disorder called Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy (AAG). "I've had enough," she had stated.
At the Stozice sports hall, the largest polling station in Ljubljana, AFP quoted 63-year-old pensioner, Romana Hocevar, who voted in favour of the legislation as saying," I'm a stage four cancer patient, I would not like to suffer. I had my father die of cancer, and my mother suffers from dementia, and I know what it looks like."
However, Marija Unuk, in her late fifties, said she had voted against the law as she supported the 'culture of life' and not 'the culture of death'.
A paper titled Global Perspectives on Physician-Assisted Death: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Doctors’ Opinions highlighted that doctors across multiple nations hold nuanced but generally supportive views toward Physician-Assisted Death, particularly when implemented under strict safeguards and limited to competent, terminally ill adults.
"Cultural, religious, and ethical factors significantly influence these attitudes, with autonomy emerging as a central consideration in end-of-life decision-making. However, concerns remain regarding potential misuse, coercion, and the erosion of trust in the doctor-patient relationship. As discussions on legalisation continue globally, it is essential that physicians’ perspectives inform policymaking to ensure that any future frameworks balance patient autonomy, professional integrity, and robust safeguards to protect both patients and practitioners," it added.
Physician-Assisted Death encompasses both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, and is used interchangeably with 'assisted dying'.
Several European countries, like Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, permit 'terminally ill people' to seek medical aid to end their lives.
