News and updates

The NT story Today marks 30 years since Bob Dent used the first Rights of the Terminally Ill Act in the Northern Territory to end his suffering. Bob was the first person in the...

Mel Turner has been the inaugural Presiding Member of the SA VAD Review Board.  Mel is now South Australia’s Chief Psychiatrist, having been the Deputy Chief Psychiatrist since 2020.  South Australia is fortunate that...

The VAD Review Board has released its 2024-2025 Annual Report which shows that VAD deaths accounted for 1.6% of deaths in South Australia in the last 12 months. There has been an increase in...

Dr Laureen Lawlor-SmithFamily medicine practitioner, Dr Laureen Lawlor-Smith, has been practising medicine in South Australia for 35 years, now working from her clinic in Belair. When voluntary assisted dying commenced in South Australia in...

VAD Access in South Australia In the first 26 months of Voluntary Assisted Dying in South Australia, 376 people used the VAD substance to end their suffering. Another 136 people had the comfort of...

Answering the VAD Dementia Quandary Dementia is the leading cause of death for women in Australia, second overall.   Access to Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) for a person with dementia is the outstanding question....

“The Victorian Government’s release of the first review of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in Victoria last week provides us with considerable confidence that VAD has become a mainstream end of life choice,” commented Anne...

“January 31, 2025. “It is now two years since Voluntary Assisted Dying became a legal end of life choice in South Australia. What an amazing achievement. And how much it is appreciated by those...

The sixth quarterly report from the VAD Review Board in South Australia has a focus on palliative care and the relationship between VAD and palliative care. Data show that around 80% of people requesting...

Go Gentle Australia released its State of VAD report in August. The landmark report summarises where we are with safe and reliable voluntary assisted dying in Australia and New Zealand. Full of data, stories...