US EditionEuropean Countries that Allow Assisted Dying
Slovenia legalised assisted dying in July 2025 after a 2024 referendum, allowing terminally ill patients relief from unbearable suffering under strict conditions.
- On Sunday, Slovenia will hold a referendum to decide whether to implement assisted-dying legislation that Slovenian parliament approved in July after a civil group supported by the conservative opposition gathered 40,000 signatures to force the vote.
- The Netherlands and Belgium pioneered strictly regulated euthanasia frameworks in Europe, with Belgium uniquely extending requests to terminally ill children under 12, while Luxembourg decriminalised assisted dying in 2009 and Spain requires written requests plus committee approval.
- Italy's Constitutional Court laid out conditions in 2019, but parliament has not enacted implementing legislation, while a pro-euthanasia association and Tuscany region pushed faster rules opposed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her rightist coalition government.
- UK lawmakers voted in June 2025 to allow adults with incurable illnesses assisted access, now under upper-house review with implementation years away; Scotland passed a first vote while France's draft stalled and Portugal's decriminalisation is blocked by its Constitutional Court.
- Legislative timetables across Europe keep the issue active, with drafts moving between chambers and senates into 2026, while Austria's parliament voted to legalise assisted dying, reflecting a patchwork of laws and cross-border implications.
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60 Articles
Philosopher Slavoj Žižek also once again expressed support for the right, citing "respect for human spirituality."
At the end of the referendum campaign, the My Life, My Right alliance, together with other advocates of the Assisted Voluntary End of Life Act, once again called on voters to support the law in the referendum in a joint statement.
The debate over the regulation of end-of-life decisions has been ongoing in several European countries for years. Slovenia has now reached a point that could have implications for the wider region, either moving towards a new regulatory model or rejecting it.
Slovenia is going to the polls to decide whether to implement euthanasia, which has received parliamentary approval. But is euthanasia permitted in other European countries?
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