Refusal of anatomical gifts · Indiana
Indiana: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Indiana?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under Ind. Code § 29-2-16.1-7, Indiana 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 Ind. Code § 29-2-16.1-6 is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Indiana’s own code.
What Indiana asks
What you need to make a refusal in Indiana
- 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.
- Indiana law
- Ind. Code §§ 29-2-16.1-6, 29-2-16.1-7
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Refusal of anatomical gifts · Persons prohibited from making, amending, or revoking an anatomical gift; donor revocation of an anatomical gift; unemancipated minors
The statute itself
Quoted from Indiana’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), another individual acting at the direction of the individual if the individual is physically unable to sign; (2) the individual's will, including if 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 to at least two (2) adults, and one (1) of the adults must be a disinterested witness.
Ind. Code § 29-2-16.1-6
How it must be witnessed (b)
A record signed under subsection (a)(1)(B) must: (1) be witnessed by two (2) adults, at least one (1) of whom is a disinterested witness, who are witnesses at the request of the donor or the other person acting at the direction of the donor; and (2) state that the record has been signed and witnessed as described in subdivision (1).
Ind. Code § 29-2-16.1-6
What an unrevoked refusal does (d)
Except as provided in section 7(h) of this chapter, 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 another person from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part.
Ind. Code § 29-2-16.1-6
A revocation is not a refusal (b)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under section 5 of this chapter is not a refusal and does not bar the person specified in section 3 or 8 of this chapter from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under section 4 or 9 of this chapter.
Ind. Code § 29-2-16.1-7
A card carried on you, in the statute (m)(4)
If the will, card, or other document, or executed copy thereof, has been delivered to a specified donee, the donor may amend or revoke the gift by: ... (4) a signed card or document found on the decedent's person or in the decedent's effects.
Ind. Code § 29-2-16.1-10(m)(4)