AB 578

This bill requires the Department of Natural Resources to provide a method by

which a resident of this state who is 15 and one-half years of age or older, or an

emancipated minor, who applies for a hunting, fishing, or trapping license may elect

to include his or her name as a donor of an anatomical gift in the record of potential

donors maintained by the Department of Transportation (donor registry) and to so

indicate on a printed license, a conservation card, or a donor card. The bill requires

DNR to transmit information about applicants who elect to be included in the donor

registry to DOT, and requires DOT to record donor authorizations received from

DNR in the donor registry even if the person does not have an operator's license or

identification card issued by DOT. Under current law, DOT must maintain those

records and disclose them to an eye bank, organ procurement organization, or tissue

bank under certain circumstances.

Under the bill, this method for electing to be a donor is similar to the method

by which a person may, under current law, elect to be a donor in an application to DOT

for an operator's license or identification card. However, under current law, a person

applying for an operator's license or identification card who elects to be a donor must

also indicate that election in the space provided on the license or card. Under this

bill, electing to be a donor on an application to DNR for a hunting, fishing, or trapping

license is sufficient to authorize a gift; the applicant may, but is not required to,

indicate that election in the space that the bill requires to be provided on a license

or conservation card. In addition, current law is more specific about how an

anatomical gift may be described in the space provided on a driver's license or

identification card than this bill is about an anatomical gift on a DNR license or

conservation card. The bill also does not include provisions similar to those under

current law that allow a person to refuse to be a donor of an anatomical gift by so

indicating on the space provided on a driver's license or identification card and to

revoke or amend an anatomical gift by crossing out the donor authorization. In

addition, the bill does not require a space to be designated where an organ donor

sticker may be affixed as current law requires on a driver's license or identification

card.

Under current law, DOT is required to cooperate with the Department of Health

Services in establishing a donor registry. This bill requires DNR to also cooperate

with DHS for this purpose.