School of Law and Justice Research Seminar: Persons with Dementia and Access to Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia

Currently over 400,000 persons are living with dementia in Australia. Few options are available for those who do not wish to continue living with the illness as they are unlikely eligible for Voluntary Assisted Dying (‘VAD’) under VAD laws in all Australian States. Recent media coverage has drawn attention to this issue. However, it remains under-researched how Australian VAD laws would have to be reformed if Australian States wanted to allow persons with dementia access to assisted dying at different stages of the illness. This seminar first provides a brief overview of dementia in the Australian context before outlining the current legislative VAD access hurdles for persons living with dementia. It then ponders how Australian VAD laws would have to be amended to allow access for persons with dementia. It does so by comparatively examining the legislative models in the Netherlands and Canada, which grant persons with dementia access to assisted dying to different degrees.

Registration through Microsoft Forms for housekeeping purposes: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/BeVKGDduVX

Please note this session will not be recorded at the speaker's request. For questions, contact sarah.mckibbin@unisq.edu.au