Refusal to make anatomical gift; effect of refusal · Nebraska
Nebraska: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Nebraska?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-4831, Nebraska 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 Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-4830 is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Nebraska’s own code.
Leaving the registry
How to come off the donor registry in Nebraska
Live On Nebraska keeps the Donor Registry of Nebraska. When you say yes at the DMV, a heart and the word “Donor” are printed on your permit, license or State ID card.
- On your license or IDApply for a replacement permit, license or State ID card at the DMV and answer no to the organ and tissue donation question. The DMV charges a fee for the replacement.
- On the registryOn Live On Nebraska’s website, sign in to your registration and update it or remove yourself.
- On RegisterMe.orgIf you also signed up on the national registry at RegisterMe.org, change your status there. Live On Nebraska cannot make changes to it.
The Donor Registry of Nebraska takes calls at 1-877-633-1800.
What Nebraska asks
What you need to make a refusal in Nebraska
- 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.
- Nebraska law
- Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-4830, 71-4831
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Refusal to make anatomical gift; effect of refusal · Preclusive effect of anatomical gift, amendment, or revocation
The statute itself
Quoted from Nebraska’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 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.
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-4830
How it must be witnessed (b)
A record signed pursuant to subdivision (a)(1)(B) of this section must: (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 subdivision (1) of this subsection.
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-4830
What an unrevoked refusal does (d)
Except as otherwise provided in subsection (h) of section 71-4831, 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.
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-4830
A revocation is not a refusal (b)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under section 71-4829 is not a refusal and does not bar another person specified in section 71-4827 or 71-4832 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under section 71-4828 or 71-4833.
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-4831