Arkansas committee approves bill letting next of kin amend or revoke past organ-donor registrations after extensive public debate

Representative Matt Brown recounted a family’s bedside experience and urged lawmakers to give families the legal ability to change an earlier organ-donation designation. "It is the absolute most horrible decision I've ever had to make in my life," Brown said, describing delays and a conversation he called coercive while his father was dying. The House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee approved House Bill 16-79 as amended after extended public testimony and a roll-call motion to pass.

The bill establishes a hierarchy for who may modify, revoke or amend a previously recorded anatomical gift when a potential donor is incapacitated at the time of death, aligning that hierarchy with the state’s disposition law. Representative Jimmy Gazzaway, a co-sponsor, said the bill "brings the law into alignment with how these decisions are already made in a host of other contexts," citing existing statutory frameworks for burial and cremation decisions.

Supporters, including funeral directors and several family members who said they had been surprised at bedside by organ-procurement approaches, told the committee they wanted legal clarity and faster timelines to prevent prolonged holds on bodies and distress for grieving relatives. Charles Fuller, president of the Arkansas Funeral Directors Association, said: "Pressure and sales tactics should never enter this picture. A trusted nurse or health care professional should be able to…