Kansas Living Will Requirements

This is a wholly separate act from the living-will declaration covered on this page, with its own chapter, definitions, and execution rules. It creates the document that names a health care agent. Kansas's living-will declaration does not have agent-designation fields and does not require you to reference this act; if you also want to name an agent, complete the separate Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Decisions. See Kansas Healthcare Power of Attorney for agent-designation guidance.

Provides the statutory basis for the living will, called a declaration, in Kansas, letting an adult direct that life-sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn in a certified terminal condition. The declaration must comply with the formal requirements of this act.

If you use witnesses rather than a notary, Kansas requires two individuals at least 18 years old who are not the person who signed the declaration on your behalf, not related to you by blood or marriage, not entitled to any portion of your estate, and not directly financially responsible for your medical care. Kansas's list is narrower than some other states: it does not disqualify your own health care provider or an employee of a care facility from serving as a witness. Witnessing is not mandatory; notarization under the same section is an equally valid, independently sufficient alternative, not a fallback.

Acknowledging your declaration before a notary public is not an optional add-on for extra protection. K.S.A. 65-28,103 makes notarization and two-witness signing two independently sufficient, co-equal ways to execute a valid declaration; you only need one of the two.

You may revoke your declaration at any time by any of three methods: physically destroying it with intent to cancel, a signed and dated written revocation, or a verbal expression of intent to revoke made in the presence of a witness at least 18 years old who signs and dates a writing confirming it. A verbal revocation becomes effective only once your attending physician receives that written confirmation, and the physician must record the time, date, and place of receiving it.

Kansas law specifies that a declaration has no effect during the course of a pregnancy diagnosed by the attending physician. The rule is absolute, with no exception stated.

A physician, licensed health care professional, medical care facility, or employee who in good faith and pursuant to reasonable medical standards complies with a valid declaration is not subject to criminal or civil liability and is not deemed to have committed unprofessional conduct as a result.

Federal HIPAA regulations govern how your attending physician and family can be authorized to receive information relevant to carrying out your declaration. Because the Kansas living-will declaration names no health care agent, any authorization to release information to a named agent belongs on the separate Kansas Healthcare Power of Attorney document, not this one.

Kansas's statutory declaration form is a single general instruction to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures in a certified terminal condition; it does not itemize interventions like CPR, mechanical ventilation, dialysis, or artificial nutrition and hydration one by one. The statute does let you add your own additional, specific directions beyond the base form, which is where naming individual interventions belongs if you want that level of detail.

Your declaration can state preferences for pain management and comfort care even while directing that other life-sustaining procedures be withheld or withdrawn. The statute's own life-sustaining-procedure definition already excludes medication or procedures necessary to provide comfort care or alleviate pain, so comfort care continues regardless of your other directions.

Kansas's Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act lets you authorize organ and tissue donation, but this is a separate act from the Natural Death Act. Unlike some other states' combined statutory forms, Kansas's declaration form itself has no built-in organ-donation section; donation wishes are handled through this separate act instead.

Federal law requires Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities to inform patients in writing of their right under Kansas law to make an advance directive, including stating their own treatment wishes.

This federal regulation implements the Patient Self-Determination Act's requirements for Medicare- and Medicaid-participating providers, including informing patients of their advance-directive rights under Kansas law.

Kansas's Natural Death Act recognizes one trigger condition for a declaration to take effect: a certified terminal condition, confirmed by two physicians who have personally examined the patient, one of whom is the attending physician, with a determination that death will occur whether or not life-sustaining procedures are used. Kansas does not recognize a separate permanent-unconsciousness or persistent-vegetative-state trigger the way some other states' statutes do, and the term 'terminal condition' itself has no standalone statutory definition.

Kansas's witness disqualification list covers only someone who signed the declaration on your behalf, a relative by blood or marriage, someone entitled to part of your estate, or someone directly financially responsible for your medical care. Unlike some other states, Kansas does not disqualify your own health care provider, an employee of your health care provider, or an operator or employee of a care facility from serving as a witness, and Kansas has no additional witness rule for residents of skilled nursing facilities or similar institutions.