Slovenians voted in a national plebiscite on Sunday against a new law that had legalised ‘assisted dying’.

Around 53 percent of voters rejected the law, while 47 percent voted in favour, meaning its implementation will now be suspended and a replacement bill cannot be considered for at least one year.

The law had decreed that some terminally ill people would be accorded a right to ‘assisted dying’. This meant that patients would administer the lethal medication themselves after approval from two doctors and a period of consultation.

Slovenia’s parliament had approved the law in July after a 2024 referendum supported it.

But the new vote was called after a civil group, backed by the Catholic Church and the conservative parliamentary opposition, gathered 46,000 signatures in favour of a repeat, exceeding the 40,000 required.

“Compassion has won,” declared Ales Primc, a conservative activist who led the campaign against the law. “Slovenia has rejected the government’s health, pension and social reform based on death by poisoning.”