How to become an organ donor (and how to stop being one)

It is the complete legal framework for donating organs, corneas and tissues in Puerto Rico. The donation is your act, free and revocable, activated after death (except living donations between living persons, like a kidney). The system has three pieces: your declaration of will (card, registry, license or document), the electronic Donor Registry — accessible to the Organ Recovery Organization 24 hours a day to verify at the moment of death whether a donation is recorded —, and the Board for the Disposition of Human Bodies, Organs and Tissues, which administers the registry and regulates disposition. The registry’s personal information is protected: it cannot be used or disclosed without your consent for any purpose other than verifying the donation at the moment of death.

Any person 18 or older, in full use of their mental faculties, can donate their whole body or any part for transplants, teaching, anatomical studies or the progress of medical science. Minors aged 16 and 17 can donate blood with the prior written consent of their father, mother, guardian or legal custodian, plus a medical evaluation certifying they are fit. And if the person died without expressing their will, the law authorizes deciding, in strict order and excluding any other relative: the decedent’s agent, the spouse, the adult children, the parents, the adult siblings, the adult grandchildren, the grandparents, and other persons the law lists after.

• Being 18 or older and in full use of your mental faculties (16-17 only for blood donation, with a parent’s or guardian’s written consent and a medical evaluation).Verified against the official source
• Recording the donation through one of the law’s routes: donor card, the electronic Donor Registry, consent on the DTOP license or ID, a private document before two witnesses, or a sworn public document before a notary.Verified against the official source

• None to consent on the license: it is a question on DTOP’s own form when issuing or renewing. For the other routes, the card or the signed document with its witnesses.

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   Step 1: Pick your route to declare yourself a donor

   The most common is the license: when issuing or renewing your driver’s license or ID card, DTOP’s form asks "Deseo ser Donante de Órganos" — you mark yes and DTOP transfers your information to the Donor Registry. The others: registering electronically in the Board’s Donor Registry, signing a donation card before two witnesses, or doing it by sworn public document before a notary.

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   Step 2: Understand what happens on renewal (nothing to do)

   If you are already registered as a donor through DTOP, you need not ratify the decision: unless you state otherwise when renewing, the donor symbol carries over automatically to your new license or ID and you remain in the Registry. And a detail the law expressly clarifies: the license’s revocation, suspension, expiration or cancellation does not invalidate the donation.

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   Step 3: Tell your family

   The family decision chain only activates when the deceased left no express will — but in practice, your family knowing your decision avoids friction at the worst moment. If you also have an advance medical directive, the two coexist: since 2024 the law obligates the physician to verify with the organ recovery organization whether you are a donor before acting on the directive.

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   Step 4: If you change your mind: three exit doors

   You remain a donor until you yourself provide otherwise through one of the law’s routes: (1) declining to remain in the Registry when renewing your license or ID at DTOP; (2) at any time, accessing the Donor Registry through its web page; or (3) requesting guidance from the Board for the Disposition of Human Bodies, Organs and Tissues or the authorized Organ Recovery Organization, by phone, fax, mail or visit.

At DTOP/CESCO when issuing or renewing your license or ID (the donor question is part of the form), or in the electronic Donor Registry administered by the Board for the Disposition of Human Bodies, Organs and Tissues, attached to the UPR Medical Sciences Campus. Also by donor card before two witnesses or a notarial document.

• Believing that letting the license expire or cancelling it removes you from the registry: the law expressly says that does not invalidate the donation.
• Thinking you must ratify the decision at every renewal: the donor symbol carries to the new license automatically unless you say otherwise.
• Not telling your family: the donor’s express will governs, but knowing it avoids conflict and delays at the critical moment.
• Assuming any relative can authorize a deceased person’s donation: the law sets a strict, exclusive order, and it only operates if the deceased left no express will.
• Believing being a donor affects the medical effort to save you: donation activates after death; in life only living donations exist, with their own rules.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico

  Salud

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov