The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2024 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Title 18 : Health
Chapter 110 : Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act
(Cite as: 18 V.S.A. § 5250b)-
§ 5250b. Definitions
As used in this chapter:
(1) “Adult” means an individual who is at least 18 years of age.
(2) “Agent” means an individual:
(A) authorized to make health care decisions on the principal’s behalf by an advance directive executed pursuant to chapter 231 of this title or by a health care power of attorney executed pursuant to the laws of this or another state; or
(B) expressly authorized to make an anatomical gift on the principal’s behalf by any other record signed by the principal.
(3) “Anatomical gift” means a donation of all or part of a human body to take effect after the donor’s death for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education.
(4) “Decedent” means a deceased individual whose body or part is or may be the source of an anatomical gift. The term includes a stillborn infant and, subject to restrictions imposed by law other than this chapter, a fetus.
(5) “Disinterested witness” means a witness other than the spouse, reciprocal beneficiary, child, parent, sibling, grandchild, grandparent, or guardian of the individual who makes, amends, revokes, or refuses to make an anatomical gift, or another adult who exhibited special care and concern for the individual. The term does not include a person to which an anatomical gift could pass under section 5250k of this title.
(6) “Document of gift” means a donor card or other record used to make an anatomical gift. The term includes a statement or symbol on a driver’s license or nondriver identification card or an inclusion in a donor registry.
(7) “Donor” means an individual whose body or part is the subject of an anatomical gift.
(8) “Donor registry” means a database that identifies donors and complies with the provisions of section 5250t of this title.
(9) “Driver’s license” means a license or permit issued by the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles to operate a vehicle, whether or not conditions are attached to the license or permit.
(10) “Emancipated” with respect to a minor shall have the same meaning as in 12 V.S.A. § 7151.
(11) “Eye bank” means a person that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law to engage in the recovery, screening, testing, processing, storage, or distribution of human eyes or portions of human eyes.
(12) “Guardian” means a person appointed by a court to make decisions regarding the support, care, education, health, or welfare of an individual. The term does not include a guardian ad litem.
(13) “Hospital” means a facility licensed as a hospital under the law of any state or a facility operated as a hospital by the United States, a state, or a subdivision of a state.
(14) “Know” means to have actual knowledge.
(15) “Minor” means an individual who is under 18 years of age.
(16) “Nondriver identification card” means a nondriver identification card issued by the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles pursuant to 23 V.S.A. § 115.
(17) “Organ procurement organization” means a person designated by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as an organ procurement organization.
(18) “Parent” means a parent whose parental rights have not been terminated.
(19) “Part” means an organ, an eye, or tissue of a human being. The term does not include the whole body.
(20) “Person” means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity.
(21) “Physician” means an individual authorized to practice medicine or osteopathy under the law of any state.
(22) “Procurement organization” means an eye bank, an organ procurement organization, or a tissue bank.
(23) “Prospective donor” means an individual who is dead or near death and has been determined by a procurement organization to have a part that could be medically suitable for transplantation, therapy, research, or education. The term does not include an individual who has made a refusal.
(24) “Reasonably available” means able to be contacted by a procurement organization without undue effort and willing and able to act in a timely manner consistent with existing medical criteria necessary for the making of an anatomical gift.
(25) “Recipient” means an individual into whose body a decedent’s part has been or is intended to be transplanted.
(26) “Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
(27) “Refusal” means a record created under section 5250g of this title that expressly states an intent to bar other persons from making an anatomical gift of an individual’s body or part.
(28) “Sign” means, with the present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:
(A) to execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or
(B) to attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process.
(29) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
(30) “Technician” means an individual determined to be qualified to remove or process parts by an appropriate organization that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law. The term includes an enucleator.
(31) “Tissue” means a portion of the human body other than an organ or an eye. The term does not include blood unless the blood is donated for the purpose of research or education.
(32) “Tissue bank” means a person that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law to engage in the recovery, screening, testing, processing, storage, or distribution of tissue.
(33) “Transplant hospital” means a hospital that furnishes organ transplants and other medical and surgical specialty services required for the care of transplant patients. (Added 2009, No. 119 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)
