Lachean Humphreys

Lachean Humphreys is a Melbourne-based writer and magazine editor. She’s a University of Melbourne alumni who spent a year researching and writing about the ethics of book censorship, although her day-to-day ethics jam is around food and animal ethics.

Articles by Lachean Humphreys:

Published in Overland Issue 229 Summer 2017 · censorship

One of three banned books

Lachean Humphreys

Euthanasia remains a polarising topic. It garners popular support, incites expert opposition and sparks heated water-cooler discussions in offices around the country. Why? Because death is the one issue that affects everyone. Euthanasia is illegal in Australia (with the recent exception of Victoria). While it’s not a crime to take your own life, it’s a crime to assist in the act. For a brief period, the Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 permitted assisted dying – the first law in the world to do so – but was later voided by the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, a move by the federal parliament to bring the matter back under its jurisdiction.