Professor Lindy Willmott has been appointed to the Queensland Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board. From 1 January 2023. the Board will oversee, monitor and report on the operation of voluntary assisted dying in Queensland. The Board will review each completed voluntary assisted dying case to ensure compliance with…
ACHLR 9th Annual Public Oration
The Australian Centre for Health Law Research (ACHLR) hosted their 9th Annual Public Oration on March 29, 2022. This year’s oration, New Voluntary Assisted Dying Legislation, was delivered by Andrew Denton and Justice Peter Applegarth (Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland and chairperson of the Queensland Law Reform Commission).…
New book published: International Perspectives on End-of-Life Law Reform
Much has been written about whether end-of-life law should change and what that law should be. However, the barriers and facilitators of such changes – law reform perspectives – have been virtually ignored. Why do so many attempts to change the law fail but others are successful? International…
Researchers guide voluntary assisted dying reform in Queensland
In September 2021, the Queensland Parliament passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 (Qld), becoming the fifth Australian state to do so after Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia. Professors Ben White and Lindy Willmott (pictured), from QUT’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research, played a key…
Analysis of the 54 amendments proposed by David Janetzki MP to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021 (Qld)
Analysis by Professors Ben White and Lindy Willmott, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT Our analysis of these proposed amendments include 5 key points: 1. It is difficult to know the consequences of the amendments The proposed amendments were delivered on the…
Autonomy, Vulnerability, and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)
In the third seminar of our QUT Global Law, Science and Technology series for 2021, co-hosted by the Australian Centre for Health Law Research (ACHLR), Professor Margaret Isabel Hall (Adjunct Professor, ACHLR) looked critically at the problematic construction and application of “autonomy” and “vulnerability” and considered the difference…
Coffee with a Colleague (Episode 5): End of Life organ donation decisions
In the fifth episode of the ACHLR Coffee with a Colleague online seminar series, Associate Professor Shih-Ning Then discusses end of life organ donation decisions with Associate Professor Dominique Martin from Deakin University. This episode (Collaborating across disciplines: ‘Transitions in decision-making authority at the end of life’, challenges…
Qld voluntary assisted dying Bill deals with institutions’ objections
The Queensland Law Reform Commission’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill is the first in Australia to address objections by institutions, and has been welcomed by Professors Ben White and Lindy Willmott from QUT’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research. Ben and Lindy (pictured above) authored the original VAD Bill…
Wills formalities beyond COVID-19: an Australian-United States perspective
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of valid will making. Executing a valid will can be difficult during a pandemic in the event of the public health response, incorporating social distancing and lockdowns. Compliance with traditional presence requirements for signing and witnessing wills has, in some jurisdictions,…
Two new PhD Scholarships: Optimal Regulation of Voluntary Assisted Dying
Two PhD scholarships are available for this Australian Research Council Future Fellowship research project led by Professor Ben White. It is intended that the PhD candidates would work primarily on the comparative case studies of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) regulation in Canada and Belgium (where VAD has been…