Public health pioneer and longstanding DWD advocate Dr Tony Adams died last month using the VAD laws he’d campaigned for over many years.
This loving tribute is written by his friend and colleague, Dr Stephanie Short who is a member of the board of DWDNSW.
Dying with Dignity NSW has lost one if its stalwart supporters, Dr Anthony (Tony) Adams AM, late of Avoca Beach. Tony had been a life member since 2014.
Tony died peacefully using voluntary assisted dying on 7 August 2025 on his beloved Central Coast at the age of 89. He was much loved and respected by family, friends and colleagues from around the world, and by his son, Erik and partner, Dr Romaine Rutnam.
"Tony was very relieved when the VAD law came into effect in NSW, and relieved that he was able to access a quality assisted death in the public hospital system last month", said Romaine who is also a DWD NSW campaigner and life member.
Tony and Romaine saw VAD as a privilege and Romaine was most grateful '...to have those VAD Navigators and Clinicians - kind, dignified and highly skilled people - to look after him."
Dr Tony Adams’ Legacy
Dr Tony Adams was 'medical royalty' in Australia and internationally. That is how the local Ambulance Officers described him when they went to collect him at his home for the last time...
Tony was the Chief Health Officer of NSW before moving to Canberra to become Australia's longest-serving Chief Medical Officer, from 1988 to 1997.
Tony was a pioneer of public health and a founding member of Australia's premier public health organisation, the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA). He played a leading role in Australia's best-practice response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and also oversaw the closing of the infamous Quarantine Station on Sydney Harbour at Manly.
At the international level, Tony Adams played a pivotal role within the World Health Organisation, contributing to the 'near' eradication of polio in South East Asia and in the Western Pacific regions as a member of the WHO polio eradication certification commission, spending a decade as its global head. Tony retired in 2016, after 20 years working at the global level with World Health Organisation experts at its headquarters in Geneva. One of his dreams was to see polio abolished from this planet.
“We are saddened by the loss of a genuine hero and pioneer of public health in Australia,” PHAA CEO, Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, said.
“My deepest condolences to his family and all who loved him. We all are a little diminished by his loss, but we are far more enriched for his contributions in life.”
Dr Tony Adams AM in 1987, while NSW Chief Health Officer
Dying with Dignity NSW extends our condolences to Romaine, Erik and Tony’s family, friends and colleagues. Tony was a truly accomplished, much loved, humble and wonderful man, a former life member of DWD NSW and a campaigner for dying with dignity. Vale Tony.