Alberta Bill 18 passed and will soon be law. More provinces need to follow Alberta's lead.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Alex Schadenberg

I have great news.

Alberta Bill 18 - The safeguards for last resort termination of life act passed on April 18, 2026 and it will soon be signed into law. You can tell by it's title that the bill will not stop Albertans from being killed by euthanasia but it does improve safeguards and it will prevent some deaths.

Bill 18 was introduced as Canada's federal government is once again debating euthanasia for mental illness alone. Below is the press conference with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith when Bill 18 was introduced.

What does Bill 18 do? Bill 18:

• requires the person to have a 12 month terminal prognosis, thus preventing Track 2 euthanasia approvals. Track 2 refers to euthanasia for people who are not terminally ill.
• prevents the expansion of euthanasia to people with mental illness alone, 
• prevents the expansion of euthanasia to "mature minors", people who cannot consent and prevent euthanasia by advanced request,
• prevents out of province referrals,
• requires the assessor to contact other practitioners who have cared for the patient, before approval.
• requires (MAiD) euthanasia practitioners to receive specific training,
• prevents health care practitioners from introducing euthanasia, without a request,
• requires Regulatory Colleges to sanction practitioners who violate the act.
• provides conscience rights by enabling practitioners to refuse to participate or provide assessments for (MAiD) euthanasia,
• enables institutions to refuse to participate or provide assessments for euthanasia.
• require practitioners who refuse to participate or provide assessments to provide information to patients wanting to access euthanasia.

The best improvement from Bill 18 is that it prohibits euthanasia for people who are not terminally ill by requiring the person to have a 12 month prognosis. Bill 18 also prevents health care professionals from introducing the question of euthanasia and it allows medical institutions to refuse to provide euthanasia, which protects palliative care and religiously affiliated institutions from being forced to provide euthanasia.

Now that Bill 18 will soon the law of Alberta, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition hopes that more provinces will introduce similar legislation.