Anatomical gifts — Refusal to make an anatomical gift; effect of refusal · Wisconsin
Wisconsin: how to refuse organ donation
If you came here to get off the registry
Is removing the donor designation enough in Wisconsin?
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Under Wis. Stat. § 157.06(8), Wisconsin 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 Wis. Stat. § 157.06(7) is the section that says so. It has to be signed.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Wisconsin’s own code.
What Wisconsin asks
What you need to make a refusal in Wisconsin
- Act
- 2006 revision, renumbered by the state
- 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.
- Wisconsin law
- Wis. Stat. § 157.06(7), (8)
- Statute read
- 2026-09-02
Anatomical gifts — Refusal to make an anatomical gift; effect of refusal · Anatomical gifts — Preclusive effect of anatomical gift, amendment, or revocation
The statute itself
Quoted from Wisconsin’s enacted code, in full and unedited.
How a refusal is made (7)(a)
An individual may refuse to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part by doing any of the following: 1. Signing a record refusing to make an anatomical gift or, if physically unable to sign, directing another to sign the record as provided in sub. (2m). 2. Including a refusal to make an anatomical gift in the individual's will, whether or not the will is admitted to probate or invalidated after the individual's death. 3. If the individual has a terminal illness or injury, communicating in any manner a refusal to make an anatomical gift to at least two adults, at least one of whom is a disinterested witness.
Wis. Stat. § 157.06(7)
What an unrevoked refusal does (7)(c)
Except as provided in sub. (8) (h), in the absence of an express, contrary indication by an individual set forth in a refusal to make an anatomical gift under this subsection, the individual's unrevoked refusal to make an anatomical gift under this subsection of his or her body or part bars all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part.
Wis. Stat. § 157.06(7)
A revocation is not a refusal (8)(b)
A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under sub. (6) (b) is not a refusal to make an anatomical gift and does not bar another person authorized to make an anatomical gift under sub. (4) from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under sub. (5) and does not bar a person who is authorized to make an anatomical gift under sub. (9) from making an anatomical gift under sub. (10).
Wis. Stat. § 157.06(8)