Refusal to make an anatomical gift · Georgia
Georgia: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Georgia?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-146, Georgia 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 O.C.G.A. § 44-5-145 is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Georgia’s own code.
What Georgia asks
What you need to make a refusal in Georgia
- 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.
- Georgia law
- O.C.G.A. §§ 44-5-145, 44-5-146
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Refusal to make an anatomical gift · Role and authority of people other than donor
The statute itself
Quoted from Georgia’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 subsection (b) of this Code 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.
O.C.G.A. § 44-5-145
How it must be witnessed (b)
A record signed pursuant to subparagraph (a)(1)(B) of this Code 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 it has been signed and witnessed as provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection.
O.C.G.A. § 44-5-145
What an unrevoked refusal does (d)
Except as otherwise provided in subsection (h) of Code Section 44-5-146, 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.
O.C.G.A. § 44-5-145
A revocation is not a refusal (b)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under Code Section 44-5-144 is not a refusal and does not bar another person specified in Code Sections 44-5-142 and 44-5-147 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under Code Section 44-5-143 or 44-5-148.
O.C.G.A. § 44-5-146