2018 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 311 - PHYSICIANS, OSTEOPATHS, PODIATRISTS, AND RELATED MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS .781 Definitions for KRS 311.781 to 311.786.
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311.781 Definitions for KRS 311.781 to 311.786.
As used in KRS 311.781 to 311.786:
(1) "Fertilization" means the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum;
(2) "Medical emergency" means a condition that in the physician's reasonable medical
judgment, based upon the facts known to the physician at that time, so complicates
the woman's pregnancy as to necessitate the immediate performance or inducement
of an abortion in order to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to avoid a
serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function
of the pregnant woman that delay in the performance or inducement of the abortion
would create;
(3) "Pain-capable unborn child" means an unborn child of a probable post-fertilization
age of twenty (20) weeks or more;
(4) "Physician" has the same meaning as in KRS 311.720;
(5) "Post-fertilization age" means the age of the unborn child as calculated from the
fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum;
(6) "Probable post-fertilization age" means, in reasonable medical judgment and with
reasonable probability, the age of the unborn child, as calculated from fertilization,
at the time the abortion is performed or induced or attempted to be performed or
induced;
(7) "Reasonable medical judgment" means a medical judgment that would be made by
a reasonably prudent physician, knowledgeable about the case and the treatment
possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved;
(8) "Serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily
function" means any medically diagnosed condition that so complicates the
pregnancy of the woman as to directly or indirectly cause the substantial and
irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. A medically diagnosed
condition that constitutes a "serious risk of the substantial and irreversible
impairment of a major bodily function" includes pre-eclampsia, inevitable abortion,
and premature rupture of the membranes, but does not include a condition related to
the woman's mental health; and
(9) "Unborn child" means an individual organism of the species homo sapiens from
fertilization until live birth.
Effective: January 9, 2017
History: Created 2017 Ky. Acts ch. 5, sec. 1, effective January 9, 2017.
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