There has been a long history of ethical review in Slovenia and the National Medical Ethics Committee (NMEC) was established in 1977. Recently local ethics committees have been set up at university and regional hospitals. Most biomedical research is reviewed by the National committee and this is required for all state funded research, all research for DSc and MSc thesis and all multi-centre trials. Approval of the Agency for Medicinal Products is also required in the case of clinical drug trials. The local/regional ethics committees are authorised to review local studies that do not present any serious risk to the participants.

Research involving gene technology or medicaly assisted procreation must also be passed by relevant special advisory committees before going to the NMEC for approval.

The NMEC also gives opinions on bioethical issues, advises parliament and assists in formulating relevant laws. It has also produced guidelines for researchers carrying out research involving humans.