Persons who may execute an anatomical gift · New York
New York: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here looking for a form
How a refusal works in New York
New York says plainly that you may refuse to make an anatomical gift, but it does not set out a form the refusal has to take.
What the law turns on is knowledge: a family member may not donate where they know of your refusal or of anything indicating you would not want it, including that it goes against your religious or moral beliefs, and a hospital or other recipient with actual notice that you indicated otherwise may not accept the gift.
New York also counts a signed card or document found on you or among your belongings as a way of changing or taking back a gift.
Want the donor designation off your driver’s license? How to remove it.
What New York asks
What you need to make a refusal in New York
- Act
- 1968 act
- Enforcement
- A person who knows of your refusal may not make the gift, and a donee with notice of it may not accept.
- Signing it yourself
- No formalities are prescribed for making one.
- If someone signs at your direction
- The same, whoever signs.
- Notary
- Its statute does not say.
- New York law
- N.Y. Pub. Health Law §§ 4301, 4305
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Persons who may execute an anatomical gift · Amendments or revocation of the gift
The statute itself
Quoted from New York’s enacted code, in full and unedited.
How a refusal is made (§ 4301(1)(a))
Any individual of sound mind and eighteen years of age or more may make an anatomical gift to take effect upon their death for any purpose specified in section forty-three hundred two of this article, limit an anatomical gift to one or more of those purposes, or refuse to make an anatomical gift. In any case where the donor has a properly executed document of gift authorization for donation shall not be rescinded or amended by any other person except upon a showing that the donor revoked the authorization pursuant to section forty-three hundred five of this article.
N.Y. Pub. Health Law §§ 4301(1)(a), (3)(b), (5)(a)
What an unrevoked refusal does (§ 4301(3)(b) and § 4301(5)(a))
§ 4301(3): 'An anatomical gift may not be made by a person listed in subdivision two of this section if: ... (b) the person proposing to make an anatomical gift knows of a refusal or contrary indications by the decedent, including that an anatomical gift is contrary to the decedent's religious or moral beliefs.' § 4301(5)(a): 'The donee shall not accept the gift under the following circumstances: (a) the donee has actual notice of contrary indication by the decedent ....'
N.Y. Pub. Health Law §§ 4301(1)(a), (3)(b), (5)(a)
A revocation is not a refusal (5.)
In the absence of contrary indications by the donor, a revocation or amendment of an anatomical gift is not a refusal to make another anatomical gift not otherwise prohibited by the revocation or amendment, either by the prospective donor or another person specified in subdivision two of section forty-three hundred one of this article.
N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 4305(5)
A card carried on you, in the statute (1(e))
An individual who has created a document of gift may only amend or revoke his or her gift by: ... (e) a signed card or document, found on such individual's person or in such individual's effects; or ...
N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 4305(1)(e)