Ms Margaret Brown

I am an Adjunct Research Fellow at UniSA Justice and Society. My work involves research, consulting and policy development in the areas of advance care directives, decision-making capacity and ethical decision making at the end of life including resuscitation decisions for older people. I am also an advocate for examining road trauma, in particular pedestrian safety, as an issue of social and medical ethics.

I was the Deputy Chair of the SA Advance Directive Review Committee (the recommendations of which formed the basis of the Advance Care Directives Act 2013 (SA)), and also Deputy Chair of the End-of-Life Working Group which developed the Resuscitation Plan 7 Step Pathway. I was appointed to the End-of-Life Ministerial Advisory Committee in 2013, the End of Life Care Strategy Program Board in 2017 and the Advance Care Planning Oversight Group in 2020.

I served on the Guardianship Board and I am a research consultant with the Public Advocate (OPA) on Supported Decision-Making Projects, including as principal researcher for 2 Law Foundation grants examining the practice of supported decision-making as well as the Life Time Support Project. I am a research consultant on the NDIS-funded Living my Life Capacity Building Project with SAHMRI and OPA and the Supported Decision Making Project with the Department of Human Services.

I run seminars on advance care directives for health professionals and the community and I give public lectures for Members of Parliament on the topic. Since the implementation of the ACD Act in SA I have developed a model of three workshops to assist people in completing their advance care directive document. I have also developed a non-statutory document My Life Decisions for people who are unable to complete the legal advance care directive document.

I am also a director of Bushland Conservation Company Pty Ltd.

• Chair, My Life Decisions Association, 2020-
• Ministerial Advisory Committee on End of Life (SA Minister of Health), 2013-2015
• Deputy Chair, Advance Directive Review Committee, Government of South Australia, 2007-2008
• Director, Bushland Conservation Company, 2011–
• Advisory Committee Member, Palliative Care Council of South Australia, 2010-2016
• Panel Member, SA Health Practitioners’ Tribunal 2010-2013
• Deputy Chair, End of Life Decision-Making Working Group, Dept of Health SA, 2009-2012
• Project Committee, Supported Decision-Making Project, Office of the Public Advocate, 2010-2015
• Deputy Chair, Respecting Patient Choices Reference Group and Ethical Legal Committee, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 2004-2010
• Guardianship Board of South Australia, 2007-2010
• Alzheimer's Association (Australia and South Australia)
• Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law
• International Ethics Associations: Hastings Center, New York; Joint Centre for Bioethics, Uni of Toronto, Canada; International Bioethics Association
• Refugee Support Groups in South Australia

Qualifications

• Master of Science Flinders University

• Master of Primary Health Care Flinders University

• Bachelor of Arts The University of Adelaide

• Certificate of General Nursing Queen Elizabeth Hospital