Dr Madeleine Archer

Biography

Madeleine Archer is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Australian Centre for Health Law Research (ACHLR), Faculty of Business and Law. Her research focuses on voluntary assisted dying and end-of-life law. She is currently working on projects in ACHLR's End-of-Life program, including a project delivering mandatory training for health practitioners on voluntary assisted dying in Queensland.

Madeleine recently completed her PhD, which was supervised by Professor Ben White, Professor Lindy Willmott, Professor Luc Deliens, and Professor Kenneth Chambaere. Madeleine’s PhD sat within Professor Ben White’s Australian Research Council Future Fellowship Project Enhancing end-of-life decision-making: Optimal regulation of voluntary assisted dying. Her PhD used multiple qualitative research methods and examined assisted dying regulation in Belgium and how it influences health professionals' conduct. It aimed to identify how assisted dying regulation might be improved in Belgium, and has broader significance for understanding and improving assisted dying regulation in other jurisdictions, including Australia.

Background

Madeleine graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Laws with first class honours in Law. Her honours thesis applied criminological theory to Victoria and Western Australia’s voluntary assisted dying regimes. During her undergraduate studies, Madeleine worked heavily on the University of Tasmania’s Independent Review of the End-of-Life Choices (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Bill 2020. Alongside this, she also worked as a research assistant in the University of Tasmania’s Centre for Law and Genetics, on projects investigating genomic data sharing.

Madeleine obtained her Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice at the University of Tasmania in 2021, before commencing at QUT as a PhD student and research assistant.

Since commencing at QUT, Madeleine has worked as a senior research assistant on projects involving developing mandatory training for health professionals involved in providing voluntary assisted dying in Queensland and Western Australia. Madeleine has also worked as a research assistant and sessional academic at QUT in the School of Law and as Unit Coordinator for the QUT Online unit LWQ164 Health Care, Law and Ethics.

Research Interests

Madeleine’s particular research interest is voluntary assisted dying, both in Australia and in international jurisdictions. Her other research interests include health law, end-of-life law, criminal law, and statutory interpretation.