lorian hardcastle, a university of calgary professor specializing in health law and policy, said she was “very surprised” to see the premier weigh in on an individual’s medical treatment.
“it would set, i think, a bad precedent, if we got into a situation where patients who had gone through the process with their doctors and with ahs, and weren’t satisfied with what they were hearing, thought that they could make appeals directly to the premier to try to intervene in medical decisions.
“i think this idea that the premier would intervene on granular-level, individual medical decision-making is wholly inappropriate.”
lewis sued ahs after her treatment team informed her in march 2021 she would need a covid vaccine to maintain her place on the top of the transplant list. while lewis is up to date on her other shots, she refused to take the covd vaccine, claiming it is “experimental” and a violation of her conscience rights.
the organ lewis needs is covered by a publication ban to protect the identities of her treatment team.
represented by the anti-mandate justice centre for constitutional freedoms, lewis has lost both attempts at being restored to the queue.
in july, court of king’s bench justice paul belzil
sided with ahs, dismissing lewis’s application and concluding “medical chaos” would ensure if doctors’ clinical decisions were subjected to charter scrutiny.