2006 Kansas Code - 65-28,106

      65-28,106.   Same; desires of qualified patient supersede declaration; presumptions relating to declaration; immunity from civil or criminal liability for persons acting pursuant to declaration. The desires of a qualified patient shall at all times supersede the effect of the declaration.

      If the qualified patient is incompetent at the time of the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures, a declaration executed in accordance with K.S.A. 65-28,103 is presumed to be valid. For the purpose of this act, a physician or medical care facility may presume in the absence of actual notice to the contrary that an individual who executed a declaration was of sound mind when it was executed. The fact of an individual's having executed a declaration shall not be considered as an indication of a declarant's mental incompetency. Age of itself shall not be a bar to a determination of competency.

      No physician, licensed health care professional, medical care facility or employee thereof who in good faith and pursuant to reasonable medical standards causes or participates in the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining procedures from a qualified patient pursuant to a declaration made in accordance with this act shall, as a result thereof, be subject to criminal or civil liability, or be found to have committed an act of unprofessional conduct.

      History:   L. 1979, ch. 199, § 6; July 1.