Slovenia's parliament has voted to legalize assisted dying, something that was previously supported by a majority of voters in a referendum. The parliament adopted the bill with 50 votes for, 34 votes against and three abstentions.
The bill gives mentally lucid, terminally ill patients the right to assisted dying if their suffering is unbearable and all treatment options have been exhausted. It also gives the right to assisted dying if the ongoing treatment does not offer any reasonable prospects of improvement of the patient's condition, but not to end unbearable suffering due to mental illness.
The law is expected to come into force in the coming weeks.
The Central European country will now join several other European countries that allow terminally ill people to receive medical help to end their lives, including Switzerland and Austria. Assisted dying was also legalized in the United Kingdom earlier this year.
