To remove the organ donor designation from your license, you actually have to complete two separate steps: take your name off your state’s donor registry, and then get a replacement or renewed license from the DMV without the heart symbol. People regularly do one and assume the other follows. It doesn’t. Medical teams and organ procurement organizations check the registry database when deciding donor status after death, not the plastic card in your wallet.1U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Organ Donation FAQ
Do the Registry Removal First
The registry is what has legal weight. The heart on your license is a visual indicator. The federal organ donation site is explicit that “removing yourself from the registry will not change” a donor mark on your driver’s license, and that you will separately “need to change your license at your local motor vehicle office.”1U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Organ Donation FAQ
Why order matters: under the 2006 Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, a valid registration is legally binding after death, and family members generally cannot override it.2U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Organ Donation and Transplantation Legislation History Someone who swaps their license at the DMV but never touches the registry is still, legally, a registered donor. Telling your family you’ve changed your mind is not a substitute. Your wishes have to be reflected in the actual registry record.
How to Remove Yourself From the Donor Registry
You can change your donor status at any time.1U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Organ Donation FAQ The exact process depends on how you originally signed up. Most people registered at the DMV when getting a license, but you may have also signed up through the national Donate Life registry at RegisterMe.org, a smartphone health app, or a hospital patient portal.
For most people, the path is to go to their state’s online donor registry, look up their record, and select the option to remove the registration. Donate Life America provides an interactive tool that walks you through this based on your state and original registration method.3Donate Life America. Removing Yourself From a Donor Registry If you signed up through the national registry at RegisterMe.org, go back to that site, click “Access your registration,” sign in, and remove your record directly. The national registry does not retain your record once you remove it.4Donate Life America. National Donate Life Registry Removal
To verify your identity, the registry will ask for your name plus at least one identifier: the last four digits of your Social Security number, your driver’s license number, or a mobile phone number linked to your account.5Donate Life America. National Donate Life Registry You don’t need all three. If you can’t tell which state registry has your record, or the online removal isn’t working, Donate Life America maintains contact information for each state’s registry administrator.6Donate Life America. State Donor Registry Removal
Getting the Heart Symbol Off Your License
Once the registry is updated, the heart icon or “Organ Donor” text on your physical card stays there until you get a new card. Visit your local DMV and request a replacement or corrected license. In most states this means filling out the standard license application and indicating you want the donor designation removed.
Replacement license fees vary by state, generally somewhere between $10 and $45. If your license is close to its normal expiration date, you can usually save the replacement fee by waiting until renewal. At renewal, updating your donor designation typically costs nothing beyond the standard renewal fee. The DMV will issue a temporary paper license while the permanent card is mailed to you, which usually takes a few weeks.
Keep in mind that the heart symbol itself does not determine your legal donor status. The registry does. Removing the symbol is about making sure your ID matches your decision and avoiding any confusion if someone looks at the card.
Your Legal Right to Revoke
The Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which every state has adopted in some form, explicitly allows any donor to amend or revoke their anatomical gift before death.7Cornell Law Institute. Uniform Anatomical Gift Act Updating your status through a state donor registry qualifies as a signed record under modern digital signature standards, so the online removal above is a legally sufficient revocation on its own. Other recognized methods include a signed written statement, a later donor document that contradicts the earlier one, destroying the original document of gift with intent to revoke, or an oral statement during a terminal illness addressed to at least two adults, one of whom has no stake in the outcome.
The key point: revocation has to happen while you are alive. Once a registered donor dies, the 2006 Act bars anyone else from revoking that gift.2U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Organ Donation and Transplantation Legislation History If you’ve decided to opt out, handle it now rather than later.
Check Your Advance Directive Too
If you have a living will or advance healthcare directive, review it after changing your donor status. These documents can authorize organ donation separately, and you don’t want one document saying one thing and the registry saying another. An estate planning attorney can review both at once to make sure they’re consistent with your current wishes.
The documents can also interact in less obvious ways. A directive instructing that you not be placed on a ventilator could interfere with organ preservation, since donors sometimes need to be maintained on life support briefly while organs are prepared for transplant. Many states handle this by allowing donation-related medical support to continue unless the directive explicitly rules it out. If you’re keeping your registration but have a directive limiting life-sustaining treatment, consider language that permits short-term support for the purpose of completing the donation.
If You Were Registered as a Minor
Donors under 18 need a parent or guardian’s permission to register, and if a minor dies the parents make the donation decision regardless of any prior registration.8U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Organ Donation and Children Once you turn 18, you alone control your donor status. If your parents enrolled you when you got a learner’s permit and you want that removed, you can take yourself off through your state’s registry using the same process above.1U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Organ Donation FAQ