{"data":{"id":"us-ky/krs-311.621","jurisdiction":"us-ky","citation":"KRS 311.621","heading":"Definitions for KRS 311.621 to 311.643.","body":"As used in KRS 311.621 to 311.643:\n(1) \"Adult\" means a person eighteen (18) years of age or older and who is of sound\nmind;\n(2) \"Advance directive\" means a living will directive made in accordance with KRS\n311.621 to 311.643, a living will or designation o f health care surrogate executed\nprior to July 15, 1994, and any other document that provides directions relative to\nhealth care to be provided to the person executing the document;\n(3) \"Artificially-provided nutrition and hydration\" means sustenance or fl uids that are\nartificially or technologically administered;\n(4) \"Attending physician\" means the physician who has primary responsibility for the\ntreatment and care of the patient;\n(5) \"Decisional capacity\" means the ability to make and communicate a health  care\ndecision;\n(6) \"Directive\" means a living will directive in writing voluntarily made by an adult in\naccordance with the provisions of KRS 311.621 to 311.643;\n(7) \"Grantor\" means an adult who has executed an advance directive in accordance with\nKRS 311.621 to 311.643;\n(8) \"Health care decision\" means consenting to, or withdrawing consent for, any\nmedical procedure, treatment, or intervention;\n(9) \"Health care facility\" means any institution, place, building, agency, or portion\nthereof, public or private , whether organized for profit or not, used, operated, or\ndesigned to provide medical diagnosis, treatment, nursing, rehabilitative, or\npreventive care, and licensed pursuant to KRS Chapter 216B;\n(10) \"Health care provider\" means any health care facility o r provider of health services,\nincluding but not limited to, those licensed, certified, or regulated under the\nprovisions of KRS Chapters 211, 216, 311, 312, 313, or 314;\n(11) \"Life-prolonging treatment\" means any medical procedure, treatment, or\nintervention which:\n(a) Utilizes mechanical or other artificial means to sustain, prolong, restore, or\nsupplant a spontaneous vital function; and\n(b) When administered to a patient would serve only to prolong the dying process.\n\"Life-prolonging treatment\" shall not include the administration of medication\nor the performance of any medical procedure deemed necessary to alleviate\npain;\n(12) \"Medical order for scope of treatment\" means an actionable medical order signed by\na patient, a patient's legal surrogate, or a responsible party, and the patient's\nphysician directing the use of life -sustaining treatment for the patient. A medical\norder for scope of tr eatment, if completed, shall implement or apply a health power\nof attorney or a living will directive if one exists;\n(13) \"Permanently unconscious\" means a condition which, to a reasonable degree of\nmedical probability, as determined solely by the patient' s attending physician and\none (1) other physician on clinical examination, is characterized by an absence of\ncerebral cortical functions indicative of consciousness or behavioral interaction with\nthe environment;\n(14) \"Physician\" means a person licensed to  practice medicine in the Commonwealth of\nKentucky;\n(15) \"Responsible party\" means an adult who has authority under KRS 311.631 to make\na health care decision for a patient who has not executed a living will directive;\n(16) \"Surrogate\" means an adult who h as been designated to make health care decisions\nin accordance with KRS 311.621 to 311.643; and\n(17) \"Terminal condition\" means a condition caused by injury, disease, or illness which,\nto a reasonable degree of medical probability, as determined solely by the patient's\nattending physician and one (1) other physician, is incurable and irreversible and\nwill result in death within a relatively short time, and where the application of life -\nprolonging treatment would serve only to artificially prolong the dying process.","path":["KRS Chapter 311"],"source_url":"https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=44034","current_through":"Includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session","vintage":"09/05/2026","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T20:58:05Z","sha256":"2d6f4e6b6fffbaeaef0624733210d0992c12820c0b6f77d246f98a0be6c04390","source_id":"us-ky","stale":false,"prev":"us-ky/krs-311.6208","next":"us-ky/krs-311.622"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}