2009 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 311 PHYSICIANS, OSTEOPATHS, PODIATRISTS, AND RELATED MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS 311.720 Definitions for KRS 311.710 to 311.820 and other laws.
311.720 Definitions for KRS 311.710 to 311.820 and other laws.
As used in KRS 311.710 to 311.820, and laws of the Commonwealth unless the context <br>otherwise requires: <br>(1) "Abortion" shall mean the use of any means whatsoever to terminate the pregnancy
of a woman known to be pregnant with intent to cause fetal death;
(2) "Hospital" shall mean those institutions licensed in the Commonwealth of Kentucky
pursuant to the provisions of KRS Chapter 216;
(3) "Consent" as used in KRS 311.710 to 311.820 with reference to those who must
give their consent shall mean an informed consent expressed by a written agreement <br>to submit to an abortion on a written form of consent to be promulgated by the <br>secretary for health and family services;
(4) "Cabinet" shall mean the Cabinet for Health and Family Services of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky;
(5) "Fetus" shall mean a human being from fertilization until birth; <br>(6) "Human being" shall mean any member of the species homo sapiens from
fertilization until death;
(7) "Partial-birth abortion" shall mean an abortion in which the physician performing
the abortion partially vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus and <br>completing the delivery;
(8) "Vaginally delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus" shall mean deliberately
and intentionally delivers into the vagina a living fetus, or a substantial portion <br>thereof, for the purpose of performing a procedure the physician knows will kill the <br>fetus, and kills the fetus;
(9) "Physician" shall mean any person licensed to practice medicine in the
Commonwealth or osteopathy pursuant to the provisions of this chapter;
(10) "Viability" shall mean that stage of human development when the life of the unborn
child may be continued by natural or life-supportive systems outside the womb of <br>the mother;
(11) "Accepted medical procedures" shall mean procedures of the type performed in the
manner and in a facility with equipment sufficient to meet the standards of medical <br>care which physicians engaged in the same or similar lines of work, would <br>ordinarily exercise and devote to the benefit of their patients;
(12) "Medical emergency" means any condition which, on the basis of the physician's
good faith clinical judgment, so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant <br>female as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death <br>or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible <br>impairment of a major bodily function;
(13) "Medical necessity" means a medical condition of a pregnant woman that, in the
reasonable judgment of the physician who is attending the woman, so complicates <br>the pregnancy that it necessitates the immediate performance or inducement of an <br>abortion; and
(14) "Probable gestational age of the embryo or fetus" means the gestational age that, in
the judgment of a physician, is, with reasonable probability, the gestational age of <br>the embryo or fetus at the time that the abortion is planned to be performed.
Effective: June 20, 2005 <br>History: Amended 2005 Ky. Acts ch. 99, sec. 587, effective June 20, 2005. -- Amended
1998 Ky. Acts ch. 426, sec. 541, effective July 15, 1998; ch. 578, sec. 1, effective <br>July 15, 1998; and ch. 614, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1998. -- Amended 1982 Ky. <br>Acts ch. 342, sec. 2, effective July 15, 1982. -- Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 255, <br>sec. 2.
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