Pre-Filed Bills for Kentucky Legislative Session 2013: BR 241

“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” Mark Twain, 1866

More fun on the LRC website. The goal is to read and comment on the pre-filed bills for Kentucky Legislative Session 2013. Thanks, Norm, at Take Back Kentucky. Excellent idea, if a tad depressing and mega infuriating.

BR 241 is sponsored by Rep. DeCesare and described thusly:

AN ACT relating to designating a surrogate on a living will directive. Amend KRS 311.625 to add that an employee, owner, director, or officer of a health care facility where a grantor is a resident or patient may be designated or act as surrogate if the person is a member of the same fraternal order.

Really? Is there no area of a Kentuckian's life where the General Assembly can't lay down its mark and attempt to be the final word? Back off. Between my attorney, my God and myself, we got this.

The Verdict on BR 241 and KRS 311.625: Both Creepy and Need to Die. Now.

Legislating a person's death is a such an outrageous idea that it's an excellent barometer of just how out of touch with reality Kentucky's General Assembly is. There is ONE comment in the middle of the text which follows:

BR 241: AN ACT relating to designating a surrogate on a living will directive.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

Section 1. KRS 311.625 is amended to read as follows:

(1) A living will directive made pursuant to KRS 311.623 shall be substantially in the following form, and may include other specific directions which are in accordance with accepted medical practice and not specifically prohibited by any other statute. If any other specific directions are held by a court of appropriate jurisdiction to be invalid, that invalidity shall not affect the directive. "Living Will Directive My wishes regarding life-prolonging treatment and artificially provided nutrition and hydration to be provided to me if I no longer have decisional capacity, have a terminal condition, or become permanently unconscious have been indicated by checking and initialing the appropriate lines below. By checking and initialing the appropriate lines, I specifically: .... Designate ........................ as my health care surrogate(s) to make health care decisions for me in accordance with this directive when I no longer have decisional capacity. If ............................. refuses or is not able to act for me, I designate .............................. as my health care surrogate(s). Any prior designation is revoked. If I do not designate a surrogate, the following are my directions to my attending physician. If I have designated a surrogate, my surrogate shall comply with my wishes as indicated below: .... Direct that treatment be withheld or withdrawn, and that I be permitted to die naturally with only the administration of medication or the performance of any medical treatment deemed necessary to alleviate pain. .... DO NOT authorize that life-prolonging treatment be withheld or withdrawn. .... Authorize the withholding or withdrawal of artificially provided food, water, or other artificially provided nourishment or fluids. .... DO NOT authorize the withholding or withdrawal of artificially provided food, water, or other artificially provided nourishment or fluids. .... Authorize my surrogate, designated above, to withhold or withdraw artificially provided nourishment or fluids, or other treatment if the surrogate determines that withholding or withdrawing is in my best interest; but I do not mandate that withholding or withdrawing. .... Authorize the giving of all or any part of my body upon death for any purpose specified in KRS 311.1929. .... DO NOT authorize the giving of all or any part of my body upon death. In the absence of my ability to give directions regarding the use of life-prolonging treatment and artificially provided nutrition and hydration, it is my intention that this directive shall be honored by my attending physician, my family, and any surrogate designated pursuant to this directive as the final expression of my legal right to refuse medical or surgical treatment and I accept the consequences of the refusal. If I have been diagnosed as pregnant and that diagnosis is known to my attending physician, this directive shall have no force or effect during the course of my pregnancy. I understand the full import of this directive and I am emotionally and mentally competent to make this directive. Signed this .... day of .........., 19... Signature and address of the grantor.

In our joint presence, the grantor, who is of sound mind and eighteen (18) years of age, or older, voluntarily dated and signed this writing or directed it to be dated and signed for the grantor. Signature and address of witness. Signature and address of witness.

OR STATE OF KENTUCKY Notary:

Before me, the undersigned authority, came the grantor who is of sound mind and eighteen (18) years of age, or older, and acknowledged that he voluntarily dated and signed this writing or directed it to be signed and dated as above. Done this .... day of ........, 19...

Signature of Notary Public or other officer. Date commission expires:.............

Everything was going along as predicted... until this:

"Execution of this document restricts withholding and withdrawing of some medical procedures. Consult Kentucky Revised Statutes or your attorney."

Really? So you don't get to decide this really, even though you are of sound mind, over 18, etc. Who wrote this part? The Medical Industrial Complex, that's who. Once you are helpless or in a coma, doctors and pharmacists can rob the (soon to be) government (your tax dollar)-funded insurance fund for every drop they can get.

You don't get to refuse the final treatment. They will jam that respirator down your throat and force in the O2--all for your own good no matter what you said you wanted--and keep that body pumping until it literally can't go another beat. Follow the money.

Wow. Just wow. So far, I've read two bills and recommend not only scrapping the bills but the laws they amend. This law is an affront to free mindful citizens. Who do our legislators think they are?

It's time for hot chocolate made with raw milk, raw honey and organic cocoa while I ponder this question. :)

I'm going out on an ice floe when my time comes in 40 years. They won't follow me out there.

(2) An advance directive shall be in writing, dated, and signed by the grantor, or at the grantor's direction, and either witnessed by two (2) or more adults in the presence of the grantor and in the presence of each other, or acknowledged before a notary public or other person authorized to administer oaths. None of the following shall be a witness to or serve as a notary public or other person authorized to administer oaths in regard to any advance directive made under this section: (a) A blood relative of the grantor; (b) A beneficiary of the grantor under descent and distribution statutes of the Commonwealth; (c) An employee of a health care facility in which the grantor is a patient, unless the employee serves as a notary public; (d) An attending physician of the grantor; or (e) Any person directly financially responsible for the grantor's health care.

(3) A person designated as a surrogate pursuant to an advance directive may resign at any time by giving written notice to the grantor; to the immediate successor surrogate, if any; to the attending physician; and to any health care facility which is then waiting for the surrogate to make a health care decision.

(4) An employee, owner, director, or officer of a health care facility where the grantor is a resident or patient shall not be designated or act as surrogate unless related to the grantor within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity or a member of the same religious or fraternal order.