Methods of refusing to make an anatomical gift · Connecticut
Connecticut: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Connecticut?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-289g, Connecticut law treats a revocation and a refusal as two different things, and only the refusal settles it.
A revocation withdraws the gift you made. It does not stop anyone else from making the gift for you. Only a refusal does that, and Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-289f is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Connecticut’s own code.
What Connecticut asks
What you need to make a refusal in Connecticut
- Act
- 2006 revision
- Enforcement
- An unrevoked refusal bars all other persons from making the gift.
- Signing it yourself
- No witnesses required by the statute.
- If someone signs at your direction
- Two adults. At least one of the two must be a disinterested witness; the other may be anyone, including a family member.
- Notary
- Not required.
- Connecticut law
- Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 19a-289f, 19a-289g
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Methods of refusing to make an anatomical gift · Effect of anatomical gift, amendment, revocation or refusal
The statute itself
Quoted from Connecticut’s enacted code, in full and unedited.
How a refusal is made (a)
An individual may refuse to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part by: (1) A record signed by: (A) The individual; or (B) subject to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, another individual acting at the direction of the individual if the individual is physically unable to sign; (2) the individual's will, whether or not the will is admitted to probate or invalidated after the individual's death; or (3) any form of communication made by the individual during the individual's terminal illness or injury addressed to at least two adults, at least one of whom is a disinterested witness.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-289f
How it must be witnessed (b)
A record signed pursuant to subparagraph (B) of subdivision (1) of subsection (a) of this section shall: (1) Be witnessed by at least two adults, at least one of whom is a disinterested witness, who have signed at the request of the individual; and (2) state that such record has been signed and witnessed as provided for in subsection (a) of this section.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-289f
What an unrevoked refusal does (d)
Except as otherwise provided in subsection (g) of section 19a-289g, in the absence of an express, contrary indication by the individual set forth in the refusal, an individual's unrevoked refusal to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part bars all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-289f
A revocation is not a refusal (b)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under section 19a-289e is not a refusal and does not bar another person specified in section 19a-289c or 19a-289h from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under section 19a-289d or 19a-289i.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-289g