Sonia Allan was an Associate Professor of Health Law at Deakin University and an independent consultant to government, not‑for‑profits, and private organisations. She was also a Senior Fellow at Melbourne University Law School. She held a Bachelor of Laws (Hons), Bachelor of Arts (Psych) (Hons), Master of Public Health (with Merit), Master of Laws (Global Health Law) (with Distinction), and a PhD in law. Her PhD examined the regulation of research involving human embryos and cloning technologies; regulatory theory, method, and compliance; and public consultation, policy, and law‑making in contentious areas of medicine and science.
Sonia’s work spanned the ethical, legal, and social issues raised by existing and emerging health technologies, including assisted reproduction and related matters. She also had expertise in public and international global health law. She was recognised through a number of prestigious fellowships and awards, including being a 2011 Global Health Law Fellow at Georgetown University Law School, Washington, D.C., where in 2012 she also won the CALI Award for Health and Human Rights. She was also a Churchill Fellow.
Sonia participated in numerous federal and state government inquiries, as well as international forums, over a period of fifteen years, on matters relevant to assisted reproduction, donor conception, and surrogacy. She was highly influential in law reform. She also sat on the International Federation of Fertility Societies Surveillance Committee, which surveys laws and practices in these areas tri‑annually around the globe. From 2015 to 2017, she led the review of the South Australian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act, with the government committing in late 2017 to implement law and policy that best reflected Dr Allan’s recommendations.
Her work was published nationally and internationally in peer‑reviewed articles and books. Her books included The Patient and Practitioner: Health Law and Ethics in Australia (LexisNexis, 2014), Donor Conception and the Search for Information: From Secrecy and Anonymity to Openness (Routledge, 2017), and Law and Ethics for Health Professionals (Elsevier, forthcoming). Sonia also wrote a number of significant reports, numerous submissions for government, and articles for the media. In addition, she ran a community information website on health law.