Advanced care directives - legal aspects

This week's Law Report on ABC's Radio National, Living in the dark on plans for dying, examines problems that are resulting from the fact that there is no national law governing advanced care directives.  Each state in Australia operates with different frameworks and terminology in this complex area of law, which is confusing to both consumers and health professionals.  Ben White, Director of the Health Law Research Centre at QUT said "We are doing a three-year study which is coming towards the end where we surveyed doctors from seven specialties involved in end-of-life decision-making in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. Our final analysis isn’t complete, but what does emerge is that there are clear gaps in their legal knowledge."  In NSW and Tasmania, there is no specific law covering written advance directives, which further muddies the issues. Some lawyers in those states assert that these directives are not legally binding, but precedents have proved that they are and the program suggests they all directives be taken very seriously.