EDMONTON—The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) is deliberating whether to take the Alberta Court of Appeal’s ruling to deny a woman who is refusing COVID-19 vaccination an organ transplant to the Supreme Court.
On Nov. 8, the appeal court upheld a lower court’s decision to deny Sheila Lewis’s request to return to the top of the organ transplant list. She was removed because she refused to be inoculated against the novel coronavirus.
“We are carefully reviewing the decision and having discussions about possible next steps, but no decisions in that regard have been made,” Allison Pejovic, the JCCF lawyer overseeing the case, confirmed to The Epoch Times on Nov. 14.
According to the JCCF, Lewis argued that the lower court erred in its finding that the Alberta Bill of Rights did not apply to COVID-19 vaccine policies because freedoms granted under the charter weren’t considered. She argued the vaccine requirement violates her charter rights to life, conscience, liberty and security of the person.
“Taking this vaccine offends my conscience,” Lewis said in an affidavit submitted to court.
The appeal court said medical judgments must sometimes be made about how to use scarce resources “in the face of competing needs.”
“We are not persuaded this court can, or ought to, interfere with generalized medical judgments or individualized clinical assessments involving Ms. Lewis’ standard of care,” the court wrote.
“While Ms. Lewis has the right to refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the charter cannot remediate the consequences of her choice.”
The court also acknowledged that it is a “virtual certainty” Lewis will die without an organ transplant.
Lewis was diagnosed with a terminal disease in 2018 and was told she would not survive unless she received an organ transplant. She was placed on a transplant wait-list in 2020, but was informed a year later she would need to get the COVID-19 vaccine to receive an organ.
There is a publication ban on the doctors’ identities, the organ involved, and the location of the transplant program.
Pejovic argued in court that while vaccines are required for recipients of organ transplants, there is no long-term safety data for the COVID-19 vaccine because it has not been around for long enough. Experts for the respondents agree with this fact.
“Forcing terminally ill transplant candidates to take a new vaccine as a condition of lifesaving surgery that is still in the testing phase for safety and efficacy is medically unethical,” Pejovic said in an email.
On Nov. 12, The Counter Signal reported that Lewis hopes to take her case to the Supreme Court, but is concerned about having enough money—and time left to live.
“I don’t have a lot of time left. I know that,” she told the publication.
The ruling comes as new Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Oct. 11 that unvaccinated Canadians have faced the most discrimination that she’s witnessed in her lifetime.
Smith has promised to amend the Alberta Human Rights Act to make it illegal to discriminate based on vaccination status.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
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