Uniform Anatomical Gift – General – Illinois

755 ILCS 50/1: Short Title.
This Act may be cited as the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.

755 ILCS 50/2: Definitions:

(a) “Bank or storage facility” means a facility licensed, accredited or approved under the laws of any state for storage of human bodies or parts thereof.

(b) “Death” means for the purposes of the Act, the irreversible cessation of total brain function, according to usual and customary standards of medical practice.

(c) “Decedent” means a deceased individual and includes a stillborn infant or fetus.

(d) “Donor” means an individual who makes a gift of all or parts of his body.

(e) “Hospital” means a hospital licensed, accredited or approved under the laws of any state; and includes a hospital operated by the United States government, a state, or a subdivision thereof, although not required to be licensed under state laws.

(f) “Part” means organs, tissues, eyes, bones, arteries, blood, other fluids and any other portions of a human body.

(g) “Person” means an individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association or any other legal entity.

(h) “Physician” or “surgeon” means a physician or surgeon licensed or authorized to practice medicine in all of its branches under the laws of any state.

(i) “State” includes any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession, and any other area subject to the legislative authority of the United States of America.

(j) “Technician” means an individual trained and certified to remove tissue, by a recognized medical training institution in the State of Illinois.

755 ILCS 50/3:
Persons who may execute an anatomical gift:

(a) Any individual of sound mind who has attained the age of 18 may give all or any part of his or her body for any purpose specified in Section 4. Such a gift may be executed in any of the ways set out in Section 5, and shall take effect upon the individual’s death without the need to obtain the consent of any survivor. An anatomical gift made by an agent of an individual, as authorized by the individual under the Powers of Attorney for Health Care Law, as now or hereafter amended, is deemed to be a gift by that individual and takes effect without the need to obtain the consent of any other person.

(b) If no gift has been executed under subsection (a), any of the following persons, in the order of priority stated in items (1) through (9) below, when persons in prior classes are not available and in the absence of (i) actual notice of contrary intentions by the decedent and (ii) actual notice of opposition by any member within the same priority class, may give all or any part of the decedent’s body after or immediately before death for any purpose specified in Section 4:

(1) the decedent’s agent under a power of attorney for health care which provides specific direction regarding organ donation,
(2) the decedent’s spouse,
(3) the decedent’s adult sons or daughters,
(4) either of the decedent’s parents,
(5) any of the decedent’s adult brothers or sisters,
(6) any adult grandchild of the decedent,
(7) the guardian of the decedent’s estate,
(8) the decedent’s surrogate decision maker under the Health Care Surrogate Act,
(9) any person authorized or under obligation to dispose of the body.

If the donee has actual notice of opposition to the gift by the decedent or any person in the highest priority class in which an available person can be found, then no gift of all or any part of the decedent’s body shall be accepted.

(c) For the purposes of this Act, a person will not be considered “available” for the giving of consent or refusal if:

(1) the existence of the person is unknown to the donee and is not readily ascertainable through the examination of the decedent’s hospital records and the questioning of any persons who are available for giving consent;
(2) the donee has unsuccessfully attempted to contact the person by telephone or in any other reasonable manner;
(3) the person is unable or unwilling to respond in a manner which indicates the person’s refusal or consent.

(d) A gift of all or part of a body authorizes any examination necessary to assure medical acceptability of the gift for the purposes intended.

(e) The rights of the donee created by the gift are paramount to the rights of others except as provided by Section 8(d).

(f) If no gift has been executed under this Section, then no part of the decedent’s body may be used for any purpose specified in Section 4 of this Act, except in accordance with the Organ Donation Request Act or the Corneal Transplant Act.

755 ILCS 50/4: Persons Who May Become Donees; Purposes for Which Anatomical Gifts May be Made.
The following persons may become donees of gifts of bodies or parts thereof for the purposes stated:

(1) any hospital, surgeon, or physician, for medical or dental education, research, advancement of medical or dental science, therapy, or transplantation; or

(2) any accredited medical, chiropractic, mortuary or dental school, college or university for education, research, advancement of medical or dental science, or therapy; or

(3) any bank or storage facility, for medical or dental education, research, advancement of medical or dental science, therapy, or transplantation; or

(4) any specified individual for therapy or transplantation needed by him, or for any other purpose.

755 ILCS 50/4.5: Disability of recipient.

(a) No hospital, physician and surgeon, bank or storage facility, or other person shall determine the ultimate recipient of an anatomical gift based upon a potential recipient’s physical or mental disability, except to the extent that the physical or mental disability has been found by a physician and surgeon, following a case-by-case evaluation of the potential recipient, to be medically significant to the provision of the anatomical gift.

(b) Subsection (a) shall apply to each part of the organ transplant process.

(c) The court shall accord priority on its calendar and handle expeditiously any action brought to seek any remedy authorized by law for purposes of enforcing compliance with this Section.

(d) This Section shall not be deemed to require referrals or recommendations for or the performance of medically inappropriate organ transplants.

(e) As used in this Section “disability” has the same meaning as in the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq., Public Law 101-336).

755 ILCS 50/5: Manner of Executing Anatomical Gifts.

(a) A gift of all or part of the body under Section 3 (a) may be made by will. The gift becomes effective upon the death of the testator without waiting for probate. If the will is not probated, or if it is declared invalid for testamentary purposes, the gift, to the extent that it has been acted upon in good faith, is nevertheless valid and effective.

(b) A gift of all or part of the body under Section 3 (a) may also be made by a written, signed document other than a will. The gift becomes effective upon the death of the donor. The document, which may be a card or a valid driver’s license designed to be carried on the person, must be signed by the donor in the presence of 2 witnesses who must sign the document in his presence and who thereby certify that he was of sound mind and memory and free from any undue influence and knows the objects of his bounty and affection. Such a gift may also be made by properly executing the form provided by the Secretary of State on the reverse side of the donor’s driver’s license pursuant to subsection (b) of Section 6-110 of The Illinois Vehicle Code. Delivery of the document of gift during the donor’s lifetime is not necessary to make the gift valid.

(c) The gift may be made to a specified donee or without specifying a donee. If the latter, the gift may be accepted by the attending physician as donee upon or following death. If the gift is made to a specified donee who is not available at the time and place of death, the attending physician upon or following death, in the absence of any expressed indication that the donor desired otherwise, may accept the gift as donee.

The physician who becomes a donee under this subsection shall not participate either physically or financially in the procedures for removing or transplanting a part.

(d) Notwithstanding Section 8 (b), the donor may designate in his will, card, or other document of gift the surgeon or physician to carry out the appropriate procedures. In the absence of a designation or if the designee is not available, the donee or other person authorized to accept the gift may employ or authorize any surgeon or physician for the purpose.

(e) Any gift by a person designated in Section 3 (b) shall be made by a document signed by him or made by his telegraphic, recorded telephonic, or other recorded message.

755 ILCS 50/6: Delivery of Document of Gift.

If the gift is made by the donor to a specified donee, the will, card, or other document, or an executed copy thereof, may be delivered to the donee to expedite the appropriate procedures immediately after death. Delivery is not necessary to the validity of the gift. The will, card, or other document, or an executed copy thereof, may be deposited in any hospital, bank or storage facility, or registry office that accepts it for safekeeping or for facilitation of procedures after death. On request of any interested party upon or after the donor’s death, the person in possession shall produce the document for examination.

755 ILCS 50/7: Amendment or Revocation of the Gift.

(a) If the will, card, or other document or executed copy thereof, has been delivered to a specified donee, the donor may amend or revoke the gift by:

(1) the execution and delivery to the donee of a signed statement witnessed and certified as provided in Section 5 (b); or
(2) a signed card or document found on his person, or in his effects, executed at a date subsequent to the date the original gift was made and witnessed and certified as provided in Section 5 (b).

(b) Any document of gift which has not been delivered to the donee may be revoked by the donor in the manner set out in subsection (a).

(c) Any gift made by a will may also be amended or revoked in the manner provided for amendment or revocation of wills or as provided in subsection (a).

755 ILCS 50/8: Rights and Duties at Death.

(a) The donee may accept or reject the gift. If the donee accepts a gift of the entire body, he may, subject to the terms of the gift, authorize embalming and the use of the body in funeral services, unless a person named in subsection (b) of Section 3 has requested, prior to the final disposition by the donee, that the remains of said body be returned to his or her custody for the purpose of final disposition. Such request shall be honored by the donee if the terms of the gift are silent on how final disposition is to take place. If the gift is of a part of the body, the donee or technician designated by him upon the death of the donor and prior to embalming, shall cause the part to be removed without unnecessary mutilation and without undue delay in the release of the body for the purposes of final disposition. After removal of the part, custody of the remainder of the body vests in the surviving spouse, next of kin, or other persons under obligation to dispose of the body, in the order or priority listed in subsection (b) of Section 3 of this Act.

(b) The time of death shall be determined by a physician who attends the donor at his death, or, if none, the physician who certifies the death. The physician shall not participate in the procedures for removing or transplanting a part.

(c) A person who acts in good faith in accord with the terms of this Act and the AIDS Confidentiality Act, or the anatomical gift laws of another state or a foreign country, is not liable for damages in any civil action or subject to prosecution in any criminal proceeding for his act. Any person that participates in good faith and according to the usual and customary standards of medical practice in the removal or transplantation of any part of a decedent’s body pursuant to an anatomical gift made by the decedent under Section 5 of this Act or pursuant to an anatomical gift made by an individual as authorized by subsection (b) of Section 3 of this Act shall have immunity from liability, civil, criminal, or otherwise, that might result by reason of such actions. For the purpose of any proceedings, civil or criminal, the validity of an anatomical gift executed pursuant to Section 5 of this Act shall be presumed and the good faith of any person participating in the removal or transplantation of any part of a decedent’s body pursuant to an anatomical gift made by the decedent or by another individual authorized by the Act shall be presumed.

(d) This Act is subject to the provisions of “An Act to revise the law in relation to coroners”, approved February 6, 1874, as now or hereafter amended, to the laws of this State prescribing powers and duties with respect to autopsies, and to the statutes, rules, and regulations of this State with respect to the transportation and disposition of deceased human bodies.

(e) If the donee is provided information, or determines through independent examination, that there is evidence that the gift was exposed to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or any other identified causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the donee may reject the gift and shall treat the information and examination results as a confidential medical record; the donee may disclose only the results confirming HIV exposure, and only to the physician of the deceased donor. The donor’s physician shall determine whether the person who executed the gift should be notified of the confirmed positive test result.

755 ILCS 50/8.1: Payment for gift.

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), any person who knowingly pays or offers to pay any financial consideration to a donor or to any of the persons listed in subsection (b) of Section 3 for making or consenting to an anatomical gift shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor for the first conviction and a Class 4 felony for subsequent convictions.

(b) This Section does not prohibit reimbursement for reasonable costs associated with the removal, storage or transportation of a human body or part thereof pursuant to an anatomical gift executed pursuant to this Act.

755 ILCS 50/9: Uniformity of Interpretation.
This Act shall be so construed as to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law of those states which enact it.

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