Transforming Ethics Workshop session: Bill 13
October 15, 2026 · 12:00 - 1:00pm
Organized by: Covenant Health
Audience: General public Healthcare professionals Researchers
This session explores the ethical tensions surrounding professional neutrality, patient-centred care and the health-care provider's responsibility to advocate for patients.
Transforming Ethics Workshop Series: Bill 13: Regulated Professions Neutrality Act: Ethical red flags, tensions, and contradictions in the health care context
The practice of medicine is a moral activity. It is the application of medical knowledge and skills in an other-regarding manner that addresses the medical interests, values, and preferences of a patient. But the therapeutic encounter and shared decision making is not the only instance where values play a critical and decisive role. Values and preferences are inextricably embedded in the practice of medicine at all levels. These values can conflict with patient interests. Our role as fiduciaries within this practice of medicine is to advocate for our patient. This position of trust is not neutral. Understanding legislation that privileges neutrality when faced with this reality is both conceptually unclear and ethically problematic.
In this session we will review Bill 13 and its impact on professional ethical obligations to act as patient fiduciaries.
During this session attendees will:
- Reflect on the role values play in health care and the experiences of our patients
- Examine the contradictions and harms associated with a “neutral stance”
- Evaluate whether the privileging of neutrality in health care undermines the care relationship and what it means to be a good doctor
All are welcome to join!
About the presenter
Cheryl Mack, MD is an anesthesiologist and pediatric palliative care specialist. Cheryl is the past chair of clinical ethics for the Stollery Children’s Hospital, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, WCM Health Science Centre, and Kaye Edmonton Clinic. She has over 20 years of experience in clinical ethics, professional ethics, and organizational ethics. Her interests include supporting families facing complex medical journeys and the associated challenges with decision making that often accompany these experiences. Advance care planning and the support of surrogate decision makers is an area of special focus. Academically, some of her current areas of research include drug policy ethics, MAiD legislation and implementation, moral distress and healthcare worker well-being, and the ethics of advocacy. Cheryl has recently retired from clinical practice and will be focusing on medical ethics now. She will remain as part of the core faculty at the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre at the University of Alberta.