The heart symbol on a driver’s license means the person holding that license has registered as an organ, eye, and tissue donor. The marking tells hospitals and organ procurement staff that the holder authorized donation after death, and it carries the force of a legal consent, not a preference or an intention.
What the Marking Looks Like
There is no single national design. Some states print a red or pink heart on the front of the card, others use a pink dot, and some simply add the word “Donor” near the photo. Whichever version appears, the meaning is the same: the holder said yes to organ and tissue donation when applying for or renewing the license. If you are not sure whether your card carries the designation, look at the front for any of these markings, or ask your state’s motor vehicle agency.
How the Heart Gets on the License
The usual route is the DMV counter. When you apply for or renew a license or state ID, you are asked whether you want to register as an organ and tissue donor. Checking yes adds you to your state’s donor registry and puts the symbol on the card you receive in the mail.
You do not have to wait for a renewal to register. You can sign up any time through the National Donate Life Registry at RegisterMe.org, through your state’s own registry, or through the iPhone Health App. An online registration is just as legally valid as the DMV box. If you want the heart to actually appear on your physical card after registering online, you will need to request a replacement license, which typically runs between $11 and $44 depending on the state.
What the Symbol Legally Authorizes
Signing up is not a casual preference. It is a legally binding anatomical gift governed by the Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, adopted in some form across the country. Once you register, no one else has legal authority to amend or revoke your gift after your death. The 2006 revision made this explicit: surviving family members cannot override a donor’s choice.1Health Resources & Services Administration. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Recommendations 19-28
Even so, telling your family what you decided is worth doing. Procurement professionals work with families at a difficult moment, and a family that already knows the decision makes the process easier on everyone.
One boundary worth naming: if you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian still has to give permission for the donation to go forward. Once you turn 18, the decision is yours alone.2U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Organ Donation FAQ
How to Remove the Designation
Registration is voluntary, and you can withdraw while you are alive. How you take yourself off depends on how you got on. If you signed up through the National Donate Life Registry or RegisterMe.org, log in and change your profile. If you registered at the DMV, contact your state motor vehicle agency to have the designation removed; a replacement license without the heart will be issued. If you did both, you have to remove yourself from both to fully revoke the gift.
Will Being a Donor Change My Medical Care?
No. The team working to save your life is separate from any transplant team. Donation is not even raised until life-saving efforts have ended and death has been formally declared. The doctors treating you in an emergency room have one job, and the heart on your license does not change it.
Religion, Funerals, and Cost
Most major religions in the United States support or permit organ donation, including Islam, Judaism, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Southern Baptist Convention, United Methodist, Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Episcopal, and Disciples of Christ. For questions specific to your tradition, your faith leader is the right person to ask.3U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Religion and Organ Donation
Donation does not prevent an open-casket funeral. Recovery is done with surgical care, and funeral directors routinely work with donor families on traditional viewing and burial arrangements.
The donor’s family is never billed for the recovery itself. Those costs are covered by the organ procurement organization or the recipient’s insurance. Hospital bills from before death and funeral expenses remain the family’s responsibility, as they would be in any other circumstance.