To remove organ donor status from your Florida license, you need to do two things: take your name off the Donate Life Florida registry online, and then request a replacement driver’s license without the donor heart symbol. Florida law lets you withdraw an anatomical gift at any time during your life, and the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is required to update its records to match.1Florida Statutes. Florida Code 765.515 – Delivery of Donor Document The registry side takes a few minutes online. The replacement license costs $25 and arrives in about a week.
Why It Takes Two Steps
When you said “yes” at the driver’s license office, two separate things happened. Your name was added to the Joshua Abbott Organ and Tissue Donor Registry, and a donor heart symbol was printed on your card. Undoing one does not undo the other. Skip the registry, and your name still shows up as a registered donor. Skip the license replacement, and the heart is still on the card an emergency responder or hospital sees.2Donate Life Florida. Get the Facts
Step 1: Take Your Name Off the Registry
Go to the Donate Life Florida website and open the “My Profile” page. You’ll need a registration ID and a password to log in. If you originally signed up at a tax collector or driver’s license office rather than online, your driver’s license number is your registration ID.2Donate Life Florida. Get the Factsp>
If you enrolled online, the confirmation screen displayed a unique ID and password at the time. Lost them? The profile page has a recovery option. Once you’re in, cancel your registration. The change takes effect in the registry immediately. You do not need a Social Security number to do this.
Step 2: Get a Replacement License Without the Heart
After the registry is updated, order a replacement driver’s license so the heart symbol no longer appears on the card. You can do this in person at a tax collector’s office or through the FLHSMV. It’s processed the same way as any other license replacement.
At a tax collector’s office, a representative runs the change through their terminal and usually hands you a temporary paper permit on the spot. The permanent card is manufactured and mailed to the address on file. If you handle the replacement online or by mail, the new card typically arrives within seven to ten business days. When it does, check the face of the card and confirm the heart is gone.
What It Costs
A replacement Florida driver’s license is $25 under state law.3Florida Legislature. Florida Code 322.21 – License Fees; Procedure for Handling and Collecting Fees If you go through a tax collector’s office, add a $6.25 service fee, bringing the in-office total to $31.25. Veterans who have previously provided evidence of veteran status are exempt from the $6.25 service fee.4Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Fees
Removing your name from the registry itself is free. The fee only applies to printing the new physical card. If you’re comfortable that the registry reflects your withdrawal and don’t mind the heart staying on the plastic until your next renewal, you can skip the $25 replacement. Most people update the card anyway, since emergency responders and hospital staff often look at it.
What Florida Law Says About Withdrawal
Florida Statute 765.515 requires the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to update its records when a donor withdraws a gift and to communicate that withdrawal to the donor registry.1Florida Statutes. Florida Code 765.515 – Delivery of Donor Document
Section 765.512 adds a critical detail: an anatomical gift that has not been revoked before the donor’s death becomes irrevocable after death.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 765.512 If you want to make sure no donation happens, you need to handle it while you’re alive. Nobody can undo it for you afterward.
Why Registry Removal Alone May Not Be Enough
Withdrawing your donor registration removes your first-person consent to donate. It does not, on its own, block your family from authorizing a donation after your death. Under Florida law, when a person has not made an anatomical gift, a list of family members can authorize one on their behalf, starting with a spouse and moving through adult children, parents, siblings, and others in a specific priority order.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 765.512
The statute does contain a safeguard. Those family members can only authorize a donation “in the absence of actual notice of contrary indications by the decedent.”5Florida Senate. Florida Code 765.512 If you’ve left clear evidence that you did not want to donate — a written statement, an advance directive, or documented conversations — your family is legally barred from overriding that. The key phrase is “actual notice.” Simply removing your name from a registry may not meet that bar on its own.
If your goal is to be sure no donation can happen under any circumstances, put your wishes in writing. An advance directive or living will, combined with a conversation with your healthcare surrogate and close family, creates the kind of documented contrary indication the statute requires. Registry removal handles the administrative side. A written directive handles the legal side.