Kentucky Supreme Court upholds advance health care directives

Published: 2004-09-14

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNS) -- The Kentucky Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of a law backed by the state's Catholic bishops that provides for advance health care directives. The court said the law includes permitting a health care surrogate -- such as a guardian or family member -- to make medical decisions for a patient who has not executed a living will or designated a surrogate. "When an incompetent patient has not executed a valid living will or designated a health care surrogate," the state law "permits a surrogate, designated in order of priority, to make health care decisions on the patient's behalf," the court said in an opinion written by Justice William Cooper. The Supreme Court opinion includes decisions on "withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment from a patient who is permanently unconscious or in a persistent vegetative state, or when inevitable death is expected by reasonable medical judgment within a few days," Cooper wrote. "The statute requires that such decisions be made in good faith and in the best interest of the patient," the opinion said.

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