Has Slovenia legalized assisted suicide?

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On July 18, the Slovenian parliament passed an assisted suicide bill by a vote of 50 - 34. On July 23, the Slovenian lower house vetoed the assisted suicide bill. Since then the Slovenian upper house has once again passed the assisted suicide bill.

Based on this information Slovenia has not legalized assisted suicide.

At the same time, 15,000 signatures were submitted for an official referendum on the assisted suicide bill. They will need to collect 40,000 signatures to verify the referendum.

Alex Schadenberg speaking

In January 2024, I travelled to Slovenia to meet with politicians, media outlets, including television news interviews and I spoke at a large gathering in Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, to oppose the previous Slovenian euthanasia bill, which was very similar to Canada's euthanasia law.

In March 2024 I was informed by groups that oppose euthanasia, that the bill was defeated. The Slovenian government responded by announcing their intention to have a referendum on the "basic question" of assisted suicide rather than the bill they were debating.

By having a referendum on a basic question, rather than the language of the bill, it turned the referendum into a theoretical debate rather than an actual debate. In June 2024, I reported that the Slovenian people passed the non-binding referendum (55% to 45%) which in fact was support for the concept of assisted suicide.

If enough signatures are collected, Slovenia will have a referendum on the assisted suicide bill.