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Social Event

Lunch Law Talks: The Right to Die? Law, Ethics, and Dementia in Australia

Date
Tuesday, 14 July 2026
Time
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Location
Lismore Campus
Lunch Law Talks - image shows a set of scales with coffee cup and hamburger balanced either side

Categories

Hosted by:
Faculty Business, Law and Arts
Event cost:
Free

Please join us for our monthly Lunch Law Talks - topical conversations on contemporary legal issues hosted by Professor David Heilpern.

TOPIC: The Right to Die? Law, Ethics, and Dementia in Australia

This Lunch Law Talk examines the legal and ethical framework of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in Australia, focusing on how the law regulates end-of-life decisions while attempting to balance individual autonomy with robust safeguards. With VAD now legal across all Australian states, the session outlines key eligibility requirements, procedural steps, and the role of medical practitioners in ensuring decisions are informed, voluntary, and free from coercion. It also considers the ethical principles underpinning these laws, including dignity, autonomy, and relief from suffering.

The discussion then turns to one of the most complex and debated issues in this area: the exclusion of individuals with advanced dementia from accessing VAD under current Australian laws. Because eligibility requires decision-making capacity at the time of request and administration, people who lose capacity due to conditions like dementia are generally unable to access assisted dying. This raises challenging ethical questions about whether the law should give greater weight to a person’s prior wishes and how to navigate tensions between past autonomy and present vulnerability.

Through legal analysis and real-world examples, the session encourages critical reflection on whether Australia’s current approach strikes the right balance between respecting personal choice and protecting vulnerable individuals. It invites participants to engage with the evolving legal landscape and consider potential reforms in this highly contested area of health law.

Key Questions:
    • Should individuals with dementia be able to access assisted dying through advance directives?
    • How should the law balance autonomy with the need to protect vulnerable people?
    • Do current Australian safeguards achieve an appropriate ethical and legal balance?
This topic aligns well with the Year 11 & 12 NSW HSC Legal Studies syllabus, particularly within the Human Rights and Crime themes:
    • Nature and development of human rights (right to life, dignity, autonomy)
    • Promoting and enforcing human rights (role of law in protecting vulnerable persons)
    • Effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses (how effective VAD laws are in balancing rights and protections)

 

We will discuss these points and answer your questions at our next Law Talk Lunch. This will be a riveting conversation, and there is nothing like being there live to ask questions, heckle or snigger. Please, bring your friends and your enemies, your work colleagues and your family to our "Lunch Law Talks". 

Let’s make Campus Grind buzz like it was the 70’s. Be there or be square. No need to book. 

Event Details

Date: Tuesday 14 July 2026
Time: 1pm-2pm 
Venue: Campus Grind, Lismore Campus

Guest Panellists

Anne Moehead
Anne Moehead, Order of Australia Medal (OAM), Public Service Medal (PSM)

Anne Moehead

Anne has had the privilege of working as a registered nurse for 45 years, working across several settings, specializing in the field of Psychogeriatrics/Dementia. She became the first Nurse Practitioner in Psychogeriatrics in Australia in 2006.

Anne chairs the Dementia Inclusive Ballina Alliance and works to make Ballina Shire more dementia friendly and supportive of people living with dementia. She was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2006 for services to dementia; and in 2021 the Public Service medal: for providing exceptional service to NSW Health since 1973, being regarded by nurses and health professionals, locally and nationally, as a leader, mentor and expert in dementia and delirium care.

Anne recently retired from her role at Alstonville Clinic and the Aged Care Sector. She holds life membership with the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners and serves as a professional member on the NSW Board of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Head and shoulders of man with moustache
Robert G Lingard

Robert G Lingard

Robert G Lingard approaches research with a range of lens acquired through his qualifications and experience in the fields of human genetics, theology, and sociology. He is a qualitative researcher with Critical Realist commitments. His doctoral studies investigated attitudes to the possibility of human reproductive cloning, and how Australians expressed their values in the policy debates.

He is a member of the Resilient Ageing in Supportive Environments (RAISE) research group in the SCU Faculty of Health and co-published (2025) a framework to evaluate the various types of good that might be achieved when working with people living with dementia. He is also a member of the SCU Human Research Ethics Committee, fulfilling the role of someone in a pastoral position in the community. Robert engages with the community as a Christian Minister (independent congregation) in Lismore, as a volunteer member of Dementia Inclusive Ballina Alliance Inc., and as a Disaster Relief Chaplain (DRCN).

Robert is married to Lyn, with whom he has raised four successful genetics experiments.

For more information

fbla.events@scu.edu.au