§ 5250t. Donor registry

(a) The Department of Health shall ensure that a registry is developed and maintained to identify people who have authorized a document of gift.

(b) The Department of Motor Vehicles is authorized to enter into a data use agreement with an organ procurement organization for the purpose of transmitting information identifying persons who have authorized a document of gift at the time of issuance of a driver's license or driver's license renewal and incorporating such information into a donor registry maintained by the organ procurement organization. Such information shall constitute the Vermont Donor Registry. The Department of Motor Vehicles may secure grants from public and private sources, and receive and disburse funds that are assigned, donated, or bequeathed to the Department to cover the costs of receiving and transmitting the document of gift data. As funds become available, documents of gift may be accepted and data forwarded from persons 16 and 17 years of age and persons being issued nondriver identification cards.

(c) The Vermont Donor Registry shall:

(1) contain a database that includes donors who have authorized an anatomical gift and provide a mechanism for an anatomical gift to be removed from the database;

(2) be accessible to other organ procurement organizations to allow them to obtain relevant information from the donor registry to determine, at or near the time of the death of the donor or a prospective donor, whether the donor or prospective donor has authorized an anatomical gift; and

(3) be accessible 24 hours per day, seven days per week for the purposes specified in subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection.

(d) No later than January 15, 2011, the Department of Motor Vehicles shall submit a report on its implementation of a data use agreement with a qualified organ procurement organization to the House and Senate Committees on Government Operations, the House Committee on Human Services, and the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare.

(e) Personally identifiable information contained in a donor registry about a donor or prospective donor may not be used or disclosed by any organ procurement organization except with the express consent of the donor, prospective donor, or other person making the anatomical gift for any purpose other than to determine, at or near the time of the death of the donor or prospective donor, whether such donor or prospective donor has made, amended, or revoked an anatomical gift.

(f) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any person from creating or maintaining a donor registry that is not established under this section, provided that any such registry shall comply with the provisions of subsections (c) and (e) of this section. (Added 2009, No. 119 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)