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Anatomical gift act · Ohio

# How to Refuse Organ Donation in Ohio

In Ohio you can refuse to donate by signing a record, or, during a terminal illness or injury, by telling at least two adults. Ohio does not ask that either of those two adults be someone with no stake in the decision, and it does not list a will as a way to refuse. If you sign the record 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. Ohio Rev. Code § 2108.07.

If you came here to get off the registry

## Is removing the donor designation enough?

Taking your name off the organ donor registry is a revocation. So is removing the designation from your driver’s license. Ohio 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 Ohio 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 Ohio’s own code.

What Ohio asks

## What you need to make a refusal in Ohio

**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 who have signed at the individual’s request. Neither has to be disinterested; Ohio dropped that requirement, so both may be family members.

**Notary**

Not required.

**Ohio law**

Ohio Rev. Code §§ 2108.07, 2108.08

**Statute read**

2026-09-02

Refusal to make anatomical gift · Action by person other than donor

## The statute itself

Quoted from Ohio’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 doing any of the following: (1) Indicating a refusal in a record signed by either of the following: (a) The individual; (b) Subject to division (B) of this section, another individual acting at the direction of the individual, if the individual is physically unable to sign. (2) Indicating a refusal by any form of communication made by the individual during the individual's terminal illness or injury addressed to a minimum of two adults.

Ohio Rev. Code § 2108.07

Reads “Subject to division (B) of this section”. That subsection is not reproduced here.

What an unrevoked refusal does (D)

> Except as provided in division (E) of this section, 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.

Ohio Rev. Code § 2108.07

A revocation is not a refusal (B)

> A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under section 2108.06 of the Revised Code is not a refusal and shall not bar another person specified in section 2108.04 or 2108.09 of the Revised Code from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or part under section 2108.05 or 2108.10 of the Revised Code.

Ohio Rev. Code § 2108.08

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