'He was surrounded by love': One year of voluntary assisted dying in the ACT

This time last year, Anthea Smith picked up the phone to get her husband access to voluntary assisted dying.

The pair were high school sweethearts and had been together for more than three decades.

"Jason was a bit of a larrikin. He was very cheeky. We grew up in rural New South Wales together and we met at school," Jason's wife Anthea said.

After battling motor neuron disease for eight years, Jason was the first person to apply for voluntary assisted dying in the ACT when it came into effect a year ago today. 

"Jason didn't want to have a long palliative sedation death; he wanted to go quickly, and so we were the first family to actually ring the care navigator service on the 3rd of November in 2025," she said.

"I'm so grateful that voluntary assisted dying was available to us.

"Because Jason had lived with motor neuron disease for nearly nine years, at that stage we were actually grateful, and that might sound a little bit unusual, but we'd already started the grieving process as Jason was losing functionality as his body was giving way."

When Jason died in June this year, he was surrounded by his family and carers, in his home where he was most comfortable.

"It was obviously a very emotional day, but we actually had lots of laughs and lots of tears,"

Ms Smith said.

"He was surrounded by love."

She said that while learning to live without Jason was tough, it was made easier knowing he had a peaceful death.

"It wasn't traumatic," she said.

"We knew he was at end of life, and he died really peacefully".

More than 50 people have died through scheme

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Oversight Board released its inaugural report today and found that 57 people had chosen to end their lives through the program.

The data was gathered between November 3, 2025, and June 30, 2026.

During this time period, more than 150 people requested the scheme, with 110 of those people having reached the final request stage.

The median period between a first request and death was 20 days, and the median age of people making an enquiry was 77.

ACT Voluntary Assisted Dying Oversight Board chair Darlene Cox said the board had reviewed every case so far and had found no major issues. 

"We haven't identified any systemic safety concerns, and we think the legislative safeguards have been operating as intended,"

she said.

'Most progressive' program in country: minister 

In June 2024, the ACT Legislative Assembly voted to make voluntary assisted dying legal in the territory, becoming one of the last Australian jurisdictions to do so.

The scheme came into effect exactly a year ago today. 

The ACT government has heralded the territory's framework as the "most progressive" in the country.

Health Minister Marisa Paterson said those using the program had "been able to end their lives with dignity and autonomy, at the right time for them".

The minister said the framework "leads the way nationally in terms of not having a time frame to death required. There's no mandated time frames between steps of the scheme".

The territory government has called on the federal government to extend their legislation and repeal the Commonwealth Criminal Code to allow telehealth consults for voluntary assisted dying.

The community will be able to provide feedback on the program when a review is carried out in 2028.