Refusal to make an anatomical gift and effect of refusal · Hawaii
Hawaii: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Hawaii?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 327-8, Hawaii 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 Haw. Rev. Stat. § 327-7 is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Hawaii’s own code.
What Hawaii asks
What you need to make a refusal in Hawaii
- 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.
- Hawaii law
- Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 327-7, 327-8
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Refusal to make an anatomical gift and effect of refusal · Preclusive effect of an anatomical gift, amendment, or revocation
The statute itself
Quoted from Hawaii’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 body part by: (1) A record signed by: (A) The individual; or (B) Subject to subsection (b), 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 other individuals who are at least eighteen years of age, one of whom is a disinterested witness.
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 327-7
How it must be witnessed (b)
A record signed pursuant to subsection (a)(1)(B) shall: (1) Be witnessed by at least two other individuals who are at least eighteen years of age, 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).
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 327-7
What an unrevoked refusal does (d)
Except as otherwise provided in section 327-8(h), 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 a body part bars all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or the body part.
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 327-7
A revocation is not a refusal (b)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or a body part under section 327-6 is not a refusal and shall not bar another person specified in section 327-4 or 327-9 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or a body part under section 327-5 or 327-10.
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 327-8