At a recent meeting of the National Assembly’s Committee on Health, MPs discussed a proposal for a consultative referendum on euthanasia. MPs from the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) were critical of the idea of a referendum, as they believe it to be ideologically and politically motivated, rather than professionally motivated. They also pointed out that the referendum would be unconstitutional, as the inviolability of human life is a fundamental constitutional right.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the National Assembly’s Committee on Health, the leader of the SDS party parliamentary group, MP Jelka Godec, explained to the members of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), who are the proposers of the call for a referendum, that according to the Constitution, it is impossible to hold a referendum on this matter, given Article 17 of the Constitution, which states that human life is inviolable. She also wondered whether the initiators intend to continue with the bizarre argument that “human life is indeed inviolable, but the law stipulates that you can be put to death.”
She also pointed to the fact that the debate at the meeting was proof that this was essentially an ideological and political issue, not a professional one. Moral and ethical issues cannot be legislated, because morality and ethics are about people, not laws.
Spomenka Hribar: “We even give the dog the mercy shot.”
Spomenka Hribar also made some bizarre statements at the committee meeting, saying that “if you believe in the autonomy of a person, you believe that he or she suffers. You do not make it your right to decide how much suffering is actually happening, in order to decide whether or not to help the person (with euthanasia) or to let them die in agony,” adding that “we even give the dog the mercy shot.”
However, SDS MP Zvone Černač stressed that the task of society and politics in such a situation should be to regulate the promotion of faith in life and love of life, and solving the issues that would subsequently allow people to receive appropriate care when they need help from others. He added that “when we prioritise life over death, then and only then can we talk about such topics.”
“This referendum on voluntary end of life is unconstitutional. That is the formal part. The substantive reasons are that our society is not at the point where it is concerned with helping people who need help – except, apparently, to ‘disappear’ from this world as soon as possible. Instead, the task of this society and of politics is to help people who are in need of strength, who are sick and suffering, to relieve their pain,” MP Zvone Černač further explained to the supporters of euthanasia at the meeting of the National Assembly’s Committee on Health.
MP Jelka Godec also responded to Hribar’s statement, posting on the social media X that “For cultures of death, the phrase: ‘We even give the dog the mercy shot,’ can be a valid argument for legalising euthanasia.”
T. R.
