HDR Rising star: Madeleine Archer

Meet Madeleine, a PhD student with the Australian Centre for Health Law Research.

Thesis

Examining How Regulation Shapes Euthanasia Practice in Belgium: A Qualitative Study of the Literature and Health Professionals’ Perspectives

Supervisors

Professor Ben White (QUT), Professor Lindy Willmott (QUT), Professor Kenneth Chambaere (Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University), Professor Luc Deliens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University)

My research

There is an international trend to permit assisted dying internationally. Belgium has one of the longest-standing assisted dying or ‘euthanasia’ regulatory frameworks in the world. My PhD research identifies how Belgian assisted dying regulation – including laws, policies, professional associations, and training programs – shapes the behaviour of the doctors and nurses who provide assisted dying for their patients. To do this, my co-investigators and I have comprehensively reviewed the scholarly literature exploring Belgian assisted dying regulation, and analysed 20 qualitative, in-depth interviews with Belgian assisted dying providers to obtain their insights on how regulation shapes their practice.

Why is it important?

This research is important because assisted dying is being closely regulated and we need to understand how that that regulation affects – for example, facilitates or complicates – the provision of assisted dying.

This new knowledge about Belgian assisted dying regulation can generate learnings for Belgian policymakers and policymakers internationally as the trend to permit assisted dying continues. Evidence-based learnings about the strengths and advantages associated with Belgium’s model of regulation may be useful for jurisdictions considering adopting, or having recently adopted their own assisted dying regulatory model.