Person dies by taking deceased partner’s unused assisted suicide drugs

A person has killed themselves using assisted suicide drugs originally prescribed for their partner, a report in the Australian state of Victoria has revealed.

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board’s Annual Report explained that the original patient died in hospital in April 2026 before they could take the lethal drugs they had been prescribed, and the subsequent suicide most likely occurred two days later. By law, the partner had been required to return the drugs to a pharmacist within 15 days, but instead used them to commit suicide.

Between June 2019 and July 2026, there have been 2,452 batches of lethal drugs given to assisted suicide applicants, but there are only records of 1,755 people dying by those means. This leaves 697 drugs left unaccounted for, some of which may have been returned or could still remain in people’s homes.

‘Extraordinary’

Despite reporting the case, the Review Board claimed to find “no evidence that any aspect of the VAD request and assessment process, or the dispensing of the substance, contributed to the circumstances that followed”.

It continued: “The program continues to operate safely, and this incident does not alter the Board’s assessment of the safety and integrity of the VAD framework.”

But Right To Life UK’s Chief Executive Alisdair Hungerford-Morgan remarked that it is “extraordinary to give that reassurance when drugs supplied through the system appear to have been used to end someone else’s life.

“Victoria’s Health Minister must commission an urgent, wider review of the assisted suicide system, including how lethal drugs are stored and returned and whether claimed safeguards in current legislation protect people in practice.

“We have seen this before. In Queensland, a person died in 2023 after taking assisted suicide drugs prescribed for their spouse. A coroner later warned of ‘further calamity and heartbreak’ if nothing changed. Victoria is now reporting a similar tragedy.”

Soaring deaths

Overall, deaths by euthanasia and assisted suicide in Victoria increased by over 31 per cent in 2025-26, with a total of 512 deaths.

Almost three quarters of these (73 per cent) died by assisted suicide via lethal drugs, with only 27 per cent killed directly by medics.

Since 2020-21, the total number of those dying by both methods has soared 153 per cent and the law is set to be further liberalised in 2027. Under the planned changes, doctors would be allowed to inform patients of euthanasia and assisted suicide without them asking about it.

‘Slippery slope’

Mr Hungerford-Morgan added that the “concerning development” provides “yet another example of how the slippery slope of assisted suicide so often becomes a reality, and that there is a clear tendency towards reducing safeguards and widening the eligibility criteria in places where assisted suicide has been legalised”.

“The surging number of deaths in Victoria shows why MPs in Westminster were right to reject assisted suicide this month. People nearing the end of their lives deserve protection and the best possible care, not a pathway to suicide”.