{"id":50956,"date":"2026-04-15T01:05:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=50956"},"modified":"2026-04-15T01:05:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:05:31","slug":"albertas-plan-to-curb-maid-access-worries-als-parkinsons-advocates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=50956","title":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s plan to curb MAID access worries ALS, Parkinson\u2019s advocates"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Jessie Ravnsborg chose to end her life when she was just 36.<\/p>\n

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The Calgary woman didn\u2019t want to die \u2014 but an aggressive, incurable illness made it impossible to continue living.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one control she had was when she\u2019d had enough,\u201d said her mother, Heather Lucier.<\/p>\n

Ravnsborg had a promising future before getting sick. She\u2019d just obtained her master\u2019s degree and was off to Sierra Leone for a volunteering vacation, when she began developing weakness.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe thought it was her hip flexors,\u201d Lucier said. \u201cBasically, I picked her up at the Calgary airport and drove her straight to Foothills (Hospital) emergency department and nine days later, she was diagnosed with ALS.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a neurodegenerative disease that destroys the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, causing voluntary muscle control to fail \u2014 but leaving the mind intact.<\/p>\n

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Patients become prisoners trapped in a body that is shutting down. There is no cure.<\/p>\n

Ravnsborg was diagnosed in March 2018. She was 35 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin four months, she was not walking. Her diaphragm was weakening and she really didn\u2019t think she was gonna make (it to) Christmas of 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tUndated photo of Jessie Ravnsborg in a wheelchair at the hospital.\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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But Ravnsborg knew her rights and what she wanted.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d worked in the intensive care unit at Rocky View Hospital, her mother\u2019s entire career was in health care and she\u2019d sat at her stepfather\u2019s bedside as he was kept alive by a ventilator leading up to his death.<\/p>\n

Ravnsborg didn\u2019t want that kind of ending. Within hours of her devastating diagnosis, she had a sobering conversation with her mom.<\/p>\n

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\u201cQuality of life for me is meaningful engagement with people,\u201d Lucier said, recalling that conversation from eight years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not go on a ventilator. I won\u2019t be trached. And I will likely utilize medical assistance in dying when I deem appropriate,\u201d she said her daughter stated.<\/p>\n

The Calgary mother was left feeling a \u201cparadox of pride and devastation,\u201d but backed her daughter\u2019s wish.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevastated and yet so proud that she would know what quality of life meant to her and could articulate it so succinctly \u2014 that she knew what her plan was going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout her journey with ALS, her mother said Ravnsborg was determined to live life to the fullest and connect with those she loved.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you know what your choice is, the focus shifts from \u2018how am I going to die?\u2019 to \u2018how do I want to live?\u2019 And that\u2019s so important when a disease is taking every bit of control \u2014 other than your attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tUndated photo of Jessie Ravnsborg with her mom, at a Calgary Flames game with player Mikael Backlund.\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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Every ALS patient\u2019s timeline is different: some decline over many years but for others, the disease claims their bodies in mere months.<\/p>\n

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That uncertain timeline now has the Parkinson Association of Alberta and the ALS Society of Alberta speaking out about the province\u2019s proposed changes to MAID.<\/p>\n

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Bill 18, tabled last month, would drastically restrict who\u2019s eligible for medical assistance in dying, limiting MAID to those likely to die of natural causes within a year.<\/p>\n

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The organizations fear the proposed legislation may unintentionally disadvantage people living with progressive neurological diseases by limiting MAID eligibility based on predictability of death, rather than severity of suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cALS isn\u2019t a straight and predictable path\u2026 we really feel that policy needs to reflect that,\u201d said Leslie Ring Adams, the executive director of the ALS Society of Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone living with ALS starts grieving the moment they get the diagnosis \u2013 it\u2019s a considerable amount of losses, one after the other,\u201d Ring Adams said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey may feel like they have no other control in any other aspects of this disease, but this is such an important one.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also worries about Alberta restricting advance care planning options for people who may later lose decision-making capacity.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor our community, the ability to plan ahead isn\u2019t optional \u2014 it\u2019s critical.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Alberta\u2019s bill aims to, essentially, return to how Canada\u2019s MAID program began in 2016 and roll back expanded eligibility granted in 2021, which permit those suffering from a serious illness or disability that isn\u2019t considered terminal and who are in an advanced state of unreversible decline to use MAID.<\/p>\n

The Alberta government said it aims to ensure MAID is not used in place of care or support for mental illness or disabilities.<\/p>\n

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