A conversation with Anne Sherston of the Human Life Protection Society on euthanasia, an ageing movement, and why they won’t stay quiet.
The Fight Against False Compassion
What is the Human Life Protection Society
Recently we had the opportunity to speak with Anne Sherston from the Human Life Protection Society. We spoke about their work in Tasmania and their fight for the dignity of life from conception to natural death. We discussed the dangers of euthanasia, which is becoming more of an issue right across Australia. We wanted to bring you this conversation directly, showing you what she’s seeing on the ground, and what it takes to keep advocating for life year after year.
We asked Anne how she got started, and how long the organisation has been around for.
“I’ve only been with the Human Life Protection Society for three years,” Anne told us. “However, the organisation started in 1972, so they’ve been running for 54 years. They started with three doctors that founded it — founded the organisation — and two of them were gynaecologists, obstetricians, and one was a doctor of philosophy. When a young mum would come into their surgery and talk about abortion, and it was way before ultrasounds were about, but somehow they had these cameras — did the same job — and they would show the young mums a video of their unborn child. And it would change their minds.”
Sources:
- Human Life Protection Society — Honouring the Founders of HLPS
- Human Life Protection Society — About
Euthanasia’s False Compassion, Explained
Tasmania, like every state and territory in Australia, now has voluntary assisted dying laws in place. Tasmania’s own legislation is currently undergoing its first statutory review, with an expert panel due to report back later in 2026. We asked Anne how she responds to the argument that assisted suicide is an act of protecting someone’s dignity.
“I believe, and I truly believe, that it is just false compassion at the expense of truth,” Anne said. “Because you’ve got people like Neil Denneher, who lived for 34 years with MND, and then you’ve got Magda — she was diagnosed with cancer, I think it was 12 months ago, and now is in full remission. And I can go on with so many other examples. For people to encourage another person — a sick person — to give up hope is really short-changing that person, because like Neil Denneher was able to enjoy his family and watch his family grow. So people miss out on so much by giving up so quickly.”
We also asked Anne about a proposal she’s raised concerns over — removing the timeline requirement for accessing voluntary assisted dying — and why she believes that would be such a risk.
“If you can imagine putting yourself in that situation, you’ve just been given a terminally ill diagnosis by your doctor,” Anne said. “You, and anybody else in that situation, would be in total shock. So to go immediately to ‘yes, I want to access VAD’ is just like a knee-jerk reaction, when the person hasn’t even been given the chance to explore what treatments there might be to help them live longer, heal them maybe. I’ve got a lot of family members that have been put in that situation. My uncle is 89 now — he’ll be 90 in December — and about five or six years ago he was given an aggressive diagnosis of cancer, and he’s still alive.”
We asked what kind of support Anne believes should be offered before the conversation around assisted dying even begins.
“If they’ve gone through all the options with their doctor as far as what treatments are out there for their situation, and they’re still not coping, maybe ask their doctor where they could get counselling in that area,” Anne said. “There would have to be counsellors out there that would be specific for different causes. I mean, of course, contact us and we could possibly direct them in the right direction as well. The doctor would probably have better access to the support people in that person’s area.”
Anne’s point isn’t that suffering isn’t real. It’s that a diagnosis shouldn’t be the end of the conversation. It should be the start of one.
Sources:
- Tasmanian Department of Health — Voluntary Assisted Dying Independent Review — https://www.health.tas.gov.au/voluntary-assisted-dying-independent-review
- Premier of Tasmania — Experts appointed to assess voluntary assisted dying laws (Feb 2026) — https://www.premier.tas.gov.au/latest-news/2026/february/experts-appointed-to-assess-voluntary-assisted-dying-laws
- The Conversation — VAD isn’t available to all Australians, in 2026 this may change (Qld review to examine eligibility) — https://theconversation.com/voluntary-assisted-dying-isnt-available-to-all-australians-in-2026-this-may-finally-change-269098
Ageing Advocates, Silent Churches, Open Doors
We also asked Anne about capacity — who’s doing this work day to day, and what stands in the way of it growing.
“We’ve got a membership of 76,” Anne said. “They’re all older than me, and I’m 67, so they’re all in their 80s and reaching their 90s. They’re tired, and they can’t physically get out there and do the legwork. So we do need younger people on board. The members are quite good in feeding us information that comes across their desks — issues that are being raised — and then we do the legwork.”
We asked what the single greatest challenge has been in getting the message heard.
“The churches, surprisingly enough,” Anne said. “I will email our newsletter and different notices to all the different denominations in Tasmania, and we don’t get one answer. And it is so hard to believe, when we’re all supposed to be pro-life. One of our committee members spoke at her parish — the morning she spoke in her church, she didn’t get one response.”
That’s a difficult thing to hear. But it speaks directly to the reason Life in 5 exists — to make sure this conversation doesn’t stay quiet. Assisted suicide is not going away. It’s expanding. The safeguards we were promised are already under review. The eligibility criteria are already being reconsidered. The doctors who started the Human Life Protection Society back in 1972 didn’t wait for someone else to act. Anne didn’t either. Now the question is: will you? If you would like to support the Human Life Protection Society, you can reach them through their website.
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