West Virginia enacts Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act

West Virginia enacts Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act 2008 West Virginia Laws Ch. 191.  As explained in the legislation:

The Revised Act makes it easier to make a document of gift, particularly with regard to organ donor notations on drivers’ licenses and ID cards; authorizes additional persons, such as a medical power of attorney or health care surrogate, to make anatomical gifts on behalf of an incapacitated person before death actually occurs; expands the list of those who may make an anatomical gift after an individual dies without a document of gift; establishes presumptions for distribution for body parts where the anatomical gift that does not specify to whom the gift passes; accommodates the use of donor registries; clearly provides for a document of refusal if an individual does not want organs donated; establishes criminal penalties for misrepresentation of a document of gift for the purposes of selling organs or tissue; and resolves ambiguity and conflict between anatomical gifts and “Do Not Resuscitate” instructions.