Refusal to make anatomical gift; means · Michigan
Michigan: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Michigan?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.10108, Michigan 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 Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.10107 is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Michigan’s own code.
What Michigan asks
What you need to make a refusal in Michigan
- 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.
- Michigan law
- Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 333.10107, 333.10108
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Refusal to make anatomical gift; means · Preclusive effect of anatomical gift, amendment, or revocation
The statute itself
Quoted from Michigan’s enacted code, in full and unedited.
How a refusal is made (1)
An individual may refuse to make an anatomical gift of his or her body or body part by any of the following means: (a) A record signed by either of the following: (i) The individual. (ii) 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 his or her death. (c) Any form of communication made by the individual during his or her terminal illness or injury addressed to at least 2 adults, at least 1 of whom is a disinterested witness.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.10107
How it must be witnessed (2)
A record signed pursuant to subsection (1)(a)(ii) shall meet all of the following requirements: (a) Be witnessed by at least 2 adults, at least 1 of whom is a disinterested witness, who have signed at the request of the individual. (b) State that it has been signed and witnessed as provided in subdivision (a).
Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.10107
What an unrevoked refusal does (4)
Except as otherwise provided in section 10108(8), 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 his or her body or body part bars all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or body part.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.10107
A revocation is not a refusal (2)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or body part under section 10106 is not a refusal and does not bar another person specified in section 10104 or 10109 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or body part under section 10105 or 10110.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.10108
What the donor checkbox authorizes
What Michigan 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.
Michigan 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. Michigan’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 may be used for transplantation, therapy, research, or education pursuant to subsections (4) and (7).
Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.10111(6)