Refusal to make anatomical gift and effect of refusal · Maine
Maine: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Maine?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under 22 M.R.S. § 2948, Maine 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 22 M.R.S. § 2947 is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Maine’s own code.
What Maine asks
What you need to make a refusal in Maine
- 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.
- Maine law
- 22 M.R.S. §§ 2947, 2948
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Refusal to make anatomical gift and effect of refusal · Preclusive effect of anatomical gift, amendment or revocation
The statute itself
Quoted from Maine’s enacted code, in full and unedited.
How a refusal is made (1)
Refusal of individual. An individual may refuse to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part by: A. A record signed by: (1) The individual; or (2) Subject to subsection 2, another individual acting at the direction of the individual if the individual is physically unable to sign; B. The individual's will whether or not the will is admitted to probate or invalidated after the individual's death; or C. Any form of communication made by the individual during the individual's terminal illness or injury addressed to at least 2 other individuals who are at least 18 years of age, one of whom is a disinterested witness.
22 M.R.S. § 2947
How it must be witnessed (2)
Individual acting at direction of individual. A record signed pursuant to subsection 1, paragraph A, subparagraph (2) must: A. Be witnessed by at least 2 other individuals who are at least 18 years of age, one of whom is a disinterested witness, who have signed at the request of the individual; and [PL 2007, c. 601, §2 (NEW).] B. State that it has been signed and witnessed as provided in paragraph A. [PL 2007, c. 601, §2 (NEW).] [PL 2007, c. 601, §2 (NEW).]
22 M.R.S. § 2947
What an unrevoked refusal does (4)
Effect of unrevoked refusal. An individual's unrevoked refusal to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or a part bars all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or the part, except as otherwise provided in section 2948, subsection 7.
22 M.R.S. § 2947
A revocation is not a refusal (2)
Revocation not refusal. A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or a part under section 2946 is not a refusal and does not bar another person specified in section 2944 or 2949 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or a part under section 2945 or 2950.
22 M.R.S. § 2948
What the donor checkbox authorizes
What Maine law says about research and education
"Transplantation or therapy" is not limited to organs. Under the uniform passing rules, if the part is tissue the gift passes to a tissue bank; if an eye, to an eye bank; if an organ, to an organ procurement organization. Bone, skin and tendon used in surgery are therapy. A donor who wants organs donated but not tissue must say so; the bare designation does not make that distinction.
Maine goes further than most states. A plain “donor” designation here can also be used for research or education, which in forty-one other states it cannot. Maine’s own words:
What a plain donor designation authorizes
If a document of gift specifies only a general intent to make an anatomical gift by words such as "donor," "organ donor" or "body donor" or by a symbol or statement of similar import, the gift passes in accordance with subsection 6 and the decedent's parts must be used for transplantation or therapy, if suitable, and, if not suitable, the gift may be used for research or education.
22 M.R.S. § 2951(5)