Some clients are surprised that our intake questionnaire asks about your organ donation preferences. We ask because we often include organ donation preferences in your healthcare power of attorney.
Do you want to donate your organs on your death? Do you want to prohibit organ donation? Should donation programs only utilize your organs for specific purposes? Would you rather your agent make the decision, or have your documents not say anything at all? Those are some of our questions for you so we can prepare documents based on your instructions. But, what about that organ donation designation on your drivers license or state ID card? what role does that play?
What is organ donation?
Just to make sure we are all on the same page- A.R.S 36-841 defines an “Anatomical gift” as a donation of all or part of a human body to take effect after the donor’s death for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research or education.
A donor themselves can register to be an organ donor so long as they are either an adult, an emancipated minor, or a minor who is eligible to receive a drivers license. A healthcare agent of the donor (unless the healthcare power of attorney prohibits it), a parent of an unemancipated minor donor, or the donor’s guardian can also make an anatomical gift. A donor can make an anatomical gift by registering to be a donor or identifying their wishes around organ donation in a will. They can also, during a terminal illness or injury, communicate that they want to be an organ donor to two adults, one of whom is a disinterested witness.
My drivers license says I am/ am not an organ donor.
Pull out your drivers license or ID card. If you see a heart with the word donor on the license, you are registered with the DonateLifeAZ registry. This is an organ and tissue donor program that you register for through the Arizona Department Of Motor Vehicles. Even if you don’t have the heart on your license, you still might be registered for the program. Revocation, suspension, expiration or cancellation of a driver license or an identification card that indicates you are an organ donor also does not invalidate the gift.
You can change your drivers license organ donor designation using the forms on the MVD website. If you are already registered, removing the designation on your drivers license does not take your name off the registry. To take your name off the registry, you need to request removal of your registration on the DonateLifeAZ website.
My drivers license designation is different than what I want.
Sometimes clients’ feelings towards organ donation do not match with the designation on their drivers license. The best thing they can do is follow the instructions one paragraph up and remove themselves from the registry. Sometimes though, clients don’t get around to that. So, what happens when they don’t match? Well, it depends.
If your drivers license does not identify you as an organ donor, it does not mean that you have prohibited organ donation. If you are still alive, your healthcare agent still has the authority to make an anatomical gift, so long as the healthcare power of attorney or some other document does not prohibit them from doing so. Even after your death, your healthcare agent or family if there is no healthcare agent can decide to donate your organs if there is nothing prohibiting them from doing so. If your healthcare power of attorney includes an express direction to your agent to donate your organs, your agent should follow it.
My license says I’m an organ donor but I want to prohibit it.
If you registered as a donor, but prohibit organ donation in your documents, it’s a bit more complicated. A donor or another person authorized to make an anatomical gift can amend or revoke their anatomical gift. One way to revoke or amend an atomical gift is to sign a document revoking or amending the gift, either expressly or by inconsistency. A revocation of an anatomical gift does not preclude an agent or other party authorized to make an anatomical gift from later deciding to make an anatomical gift. To preclude others donating your organs a person can also sign a record refusing to make an anatomical gift, which bars all others from making an anatomical gift. Your revocation, amendment or refusal must meet specific requirements to be valid.
While you may validly revoke or amend your drivers license designation with the provisions in your will and healthcare power of attorney, inconsistencies lead to confusion and misunderstandings. Having inconsistencies between your drivers license and your documents is asking for trouble. Of course, the best thing you can do is have your documents match your drivers license. If you want to be a donor, register. If you don’t want to be an organ donor, remove your registration.
