HB 534

Bill Subjects

Administrative Regulations And Proceedings Crimes And Punishments Deaths Drugs And Medicines Health And Medical Services Hospitals And Nursing Homes Insurance Insurance, Health Mental Health Nurses Pharmacists Physicians And Practitioners Public Health Reports Mandated Short Titles And Popular Names Wills And Estates

Abstract

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 311 to define terms; establish a qualified terminally ill patient's right to voluntarily request medication to self-administer to cause death; require conditions for making request; permit patient to rescind request at any time; permit an attending physician to provide medication; establish requirements for attending physician to inform patients and document request; require disposal of unused medications; establish residency requirements for qualified patients; require report by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services; establish provisions for contracts, insurance policies, and beneficiaries; prohibit applicability of provisions to ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia; direct that a health care provider is not required to provide medication to a qualified patient; permit health care providers to prohibit persons or entities from participating in a qualified patient's request during or on the premises of employment; prohibit reporting a health care provider to a licensing board for participating in a qualified patient's request; state that actions under this Act do not authorize lethal injection, mercy killing or active euthanasia; state that actions under this Act do not constitute suicide or homicide; create a form for a qualified patient to make a request; create a form for an interpreter for a qualified patient making a request; create a new section of Subtitle 12 of KRS Chapter 304 to establish provisions for insurance policies and beneficiaries of qualified patients; amend KRS 507.020 and KRS 507.030 to create an affirmative defense to a charge of murder and manslaughter in the first degree; establish short title of the Kentucky Death with Dignity Act.