Anatomical gift act · Oregon

How to Refuse Organ Donation in Oregon

In Oregon 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. Or. Rev. Stat. § 97.961.

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. Oregon 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 Oregon 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 Oregon’s own code.

What Oregon asks

What you need to make a refusal in Oregon

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.
Oregon law
Or. Rev. Stat. §§ 97.961, 97.963
Statute read
2026-09-02

Refusal to make anatomical gift; effect of refusal · Effect of making, amending or revoking anatomical gift

The statute itself

Quoted from Oregon’s enacted code, in full and unedited.

How a refusal is made (1)

An individual may refuse to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or body part by: (a) A record signed by: (A) The individual; or (B) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, another individual acting at the direction of the individual if the individual is physically unable to sign; (b) The individual's will, whether or not the will is admitted to probate or invalidated after the individual's death; or (c) 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.

Or. Rev. Stat. § 97.961

Reads “Subject to subsection (2) of this section”. That subsection is not reproduced here.

What an unrevoked refusal does (4)

Except as otherwise provided in subsection (5) 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 body part prohibits all other persons from making an anatomical gift of the individual's body or body part.

Or. Rev. Stat. § 97.961

A revocation is not a refusal (2)

A donor's revocation of an anatomical gift of the donor's body or body part under ORS 97.959 is not a refusal and does not prohibit another person specified in ORS 97.955 or 97.965 from making an anatomical gift of the donor's body or body part under ORS 97.957 or 97.967.

Or. Rev. Stat. § 97.963

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