Tag: health professionals

Religious discrimination in Australian health law: hype or reality?

Queensland has passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021. I’m disappointed in Queensland’s Parliament, not for passing assisted dying legislation, but for consciously trampling over the religious beliefs of Catholic and other religious healthcare organisations. Catholic hospitals are right to be aggrieved. It’s entirely predictable that church institutions are now considering civil disobedience. (See “Catholic…

20 September, 2021
Abortion law reform and conscientious objectors in NSW

New South Wales is on the cusp of reforming its decades-old abortion laws. Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 which passed the State’s Legislative Assembly last week abolishes the triumvirate of criminal offences for abortion in the Crimes Act 1900 (ss 82-84), together with any residual common law liability for performing an abortion. It creates…

12 August, 2019
Verifying IVF births involving donated sperm, eggs or embryos: changes to the law in New South Wales

A previous post discussed the case of Natalie Parker, an Australian mother of two young boys who, following the conclusion of IVF treatment, donated three spare embryos to a woman she met on the Embryo Donation Network, a place where donors and recipients can advertise and make contact. Parker was prepared to donate the embryos,…

15 April, 2019
Manslaughter by gross negligence, or systemic failure? Implications of the Dr Hadiza Bawa-Barba case for Australia

Sydney Law School and the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney are co-hosting an evening seminar entitled “Manslaughter by gross negligence, or systemic failure? Implications of the Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba case for Australia”. This event will be held at the Law School on Thurs 8 November, 6.00-7.30pm. You can register here.…

30 October, 2018
Liability for failure to effectively manage morbidly obese patients: it’s time to look again at Varipatis v Almario – here’s why

What should a GP do with a morbidly obese patient who is in denial about their weight problem? Although it involved a complex set of facts, it’s time to revisit Almario v Varipatis (No 2) [2012] NSWSC 1578, reversed on appeal (Varipatis v Almario [2013] NSWCA 76). Doctors should take no comfort in the fact…

4 September, 2017
Dr Rodney Syme and Nembutal

A Good Death In the mid-1970s, a Melbourne urologist, Rodney Syme, sat facing Len, a man whose invasive bladder cancer was causing incontinence and blood clots that blocked the flow of urine. Len needed to urinate every fifteen minutes, and frequently wet himself. He was in excruciating pain. It is cases like this, Syme would…

15 February, 2017
Abortion law reform on the horizon in NSW and Queensland

Contrary to popular belief, abortion is not available “on demand” in NSW. The Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) contains three criminal offences relating to abortion. Section 83 creates an offence for unlawfully administering a drug or using any instrument or other means to procure a woman’s miscarriage, Section 82 creates an offence for a woman to…

12 October, 2016
Muzzling health and welfare professionals in the name of national security: Australia’s Border Force Act 2015

As law professors employed by one of Australia’s oldest law schools, we live and breathe law, and care about the rule of law. Frankly, however, we don’t care about it enough to stand by while government tries to muzzle dedicated professionals working in difficult conditions to protect the safety and dignity of children.

6 July, 2015