Anatomical gift act · Iowa
In Iowa you can refuse to donate by signing a record, in your will, or, during a terminal illness or injury, by telling at least two adults, one of whom has no interest in the decision. If you sign it yourself, you do not need witnesses. Once you have refused and not taken it back, no one else can donate your body or any part of it. Iowa Code § 142C.3.
If you came here to get off the registry
Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Iowa 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 Iowa requires one to be signed. Until you sign one, the decision is still open to someone else.
Both provisions are quoted in full below, from Iowa’s own code.
What Iowa asks
Persons who may make — manner of making — amending or revoking — refusal to make anatomical gift before donor's death — preclusive effect (subsection 4, "Refusal to make") · Preclusive effect (subsection 5)
Quoted from Iowa’s enacted code, in full and unedited.
How a refusal is made (4.a)
An individual may refuse to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part by any of the following means: (1) A record signed by any of the following: (a) The individual. (b) Subject to paragraph "b", another individual acting at the direction of the individual if the individual is physically unable to sign the record. (2) The individual's will, whether or not the will is admitted to probate or invalidated after the individual's death. (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.
Iowa Code § 142C.3(4)
Reads “Subject to paragraph "b"”. That subsection is not reproduced here.
What an unrevoked refusal does (4.d)
Except as otherwise provided in subsection 5, paragraph "h", 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 prohibits all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part.
Iowa Code § 142C.3(4)
A revocation is not a refusal (5.b)
Donor revocation not a refusal. A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under subsection 3 is not a refusal and does not prohibit another person specified in subsection 1 or section 142C.4 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under subsection 2 or section 142C.4.
Iowa Code § 142C.3(5)
You tell us your state, we show you what it asks for before you sign, and your page names the state you signed in. Your signed document is what carries legal weight. We host it and make it findable.