Woods Ex Rel. Simpson v. Commonwealth

COOPER, Justice.

This appeal challenges the constitutionality of KRS 311.631, a provision of the Kentucky Living Will Directive Act, insofar as it permits a judicially-appointed guardian or other designated surrogate to authorize the withholding or withdrawal of artificial life-prolonging treatment from a ward or patient who is either in a persistent vegetative state or permanently unconscious. If the statute is constitutional, the issue becomes how to implement it.

Matthew Woods was born on November 24, 1941; he died during the course of these proceedings on June 2, 1996. His intelligence…