Refusal to make anatomical gift; effect of refusal · Virginia
Virginia: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Virginia?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-291.8, Virginia 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 Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-291.7 is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Virginia’s own code.
What Virginia asks
What you need to make a refusal in Virginia
- 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.
- Virginia law
- Va. Code Ann. §§ 32.1-291.7, 32.1-291.8
- 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 Virginia’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, 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.
Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-291.7
How it must be witnessed (B)
A record signed pursuant to subdivision A 1 b shall: 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.
Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-291.7
What an unrevoked refusal does (D)
Except as otherwise provided in subsection H of § 32.1-291.8, 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 the individual's body or part bars all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part.
Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-291.7
A revocation is not a refusal (B)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under § 32.1-291.6 is not a refusal and does not bar another person specified in § 32.1-291.4 or 32.1-291.9 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under § 32.1-291.5 or 32.1-291.10.
Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-291.8
What the donor checkbox authorizes
What Virginia 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.
Virginia 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. Virginia’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 and education and the gift passes in accordance with subsection G. The gift shall be used first for transplantation or therapy, if suitable. If the gift cannot be used for transplantation or therapy, the gift may be used for research or education.
Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-291.11(F)