Voluntary Assisted Dying: Law? Health? Justice? Edited by Daniel J. Fleming and David J. Carter (ANU Press, 2022).

Since the introduction of voluntary assisted dying in 2019, a ‘new moment’ in the governance of life and death has opened up within the Australian context. This collection brings together critical perspectives on voluntary assisted dying itself, and on various practices adjacent to it, including questions of state power, population ageing, the differential treatment of human and non-human animals at the time of death, the management of health care processes through silent ‘workarounds’, and the financialisation of death.

Congratulations on New Assignment

Dr. David Kirchhoffer, director of the Queensland Bioethics Centre at Australian Catholic University, and member of CTEWC, has been appointed to the Australian Health Ethics Committee. AHEC is the Australian peak health ethics body and is a committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. AHEC is responsible for ongoing revision of Australia’s national human research ethics guidelines as well as for developing new ethics guidelines for emerging medical technologies and other health matters. 

Asian-Oceanian regional VT held on 17 February, 2022

Asian-Oceanian regional VT was held on 17 February, 2022 with 10 members. The first session, which lasted for an hour, was moderated by Eric Marcelo Genilo. Dionius Mahamboro presented a paper on “Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating for Irregular Marriage: Case in Local Church.” Taking the example of a particular archdiocese in Indonesia, Mahamboro explained how the basic Christian community cell in that region deal with irregular marriages. Such basic ecclesial units make a spiritual discernment of the situation of such couples and show them mercy to the extent of permitting them to receive the Eucharist. The paper provoked many questions, while it brought forth many concerns of Amoris Laetitia. A fruitful discussion followed. In the second session that lasted for half an hour, many practical concerns surfaced and were subjected to discussion.