Miss Madeleine Archer

Biography

Ms Madeleine Archer is a PhD Candidate in the Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Business and Law, supervised by Professor Ben White, Professor Lindy Willmott, Professor Luc Deliens, and Professor Kenneth Chambaere.

Madeleine’s PhD sits 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 examines assisted dying regulation in Belgium, and the impact that regulation has on health professionals’ conduct in relation to assisted dying. It aims to identify how assisted dying regulation might be improved in Belgium, and has broader significance for understanding 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 is also currently working as a research assistant and sessional academic at QUT, 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. Her other research interests include health law more broadly, end-of-life law, criminal law, and statutory interpretation.