I would think that as long as you updated it at least as often as you update your driver’s licence, it would remain a valid indicator of your intent.
Why? Doctors have procedures for how to deal with organ donations. That procedure means looking at driver’s license and organ donor cards. There are huge legal risks for them being creative.
I had to give up on trying to find out if a tattoo can count as consent on its own—I would guess that it would be iffy territory unless you had it notarized and witnessed.
It might still be worthwhile to have a tattoo; it does tell them that you have given consent, meaning that they will make an extra effort to look for consent (In the US this means a state database). This would only be relevant if you are found without your drivers license/ID. There are a number of fringe cases where you might be found dead and dying without easy access to your ID, but they are admittedly rare. They are also more likely to cases where your organs aren’t usable (fire, ravaged by bears, rip tide carries you out to sea). However, if the legal team gets any head start on finding a John Doe’s organ donor status, on average this is likely to result in increased organ salvage.
Here’s a revised suggestion, for social feasibility, effectiveness, and pain reduction: get a tattoo of a red heart and the words organ donor and your name in a protected area (e.g. on the side of your trunk, just below the arm pit). Until RDFI chips become common this is also probably one of your best protections against becoming a J. Doe (I mean, other than living a sane and safe life).
I had to give up on trying to find out if a tattoo can count as consent on its own
The core question isn’t whether it can legally count as consent but whether the process that a medical team uses when it finds a dead body recognizes the tattoo.
I am not a first responder, but if I had a pile of corpses and one of them had an organ donor tattoo, that corpse would definitely be flagged for special attention and quick transport to the morgue. I wouldn’t count on it being legal for them to make an extra effort to ID one body before another just based on (suspected) organ donor status, but making it into the refrigerator a bit earlier is a benefit.
Why? Doctors have procedures for how to deal with organ donations. That procedure means looking at driver’s license and organ donor cards. There are huge legal risks for them being creative.
I had to give up on trying to find out if a tattoo can count as consent on its own—I would guess that it would be iffy territory unless you had it notarized and witnessed.
It might still be worthwhile to have a tattoo; it does tell them that you have given consent, meaning that they will make an extra effort to look for consent (In the US this means a state database). This would only be relevant if you are found without your drivers license/ID. There are a number of fringe cases where you might be found dead and dying without easy access to your ID, but they are admittedly rare. They are also more likely to cases where your organs aren’t usable (fire, ravaged by bears, rip tide carries you out to sea). However, if the legal team gets any head start on finding a John Doe’s organ donor status, on average this is likely to result in increased organ salvage.
Here’s a revised suggestion, for social feasibility, effectiveness, and pain reduction: get a tattoo of a red heart and the words organ donor and your name in a protected area (e.g. on the side of your trunk, just below the arm pit). Until RDFI chips become common this is also probably one of your best protections against becoming a J. Doe (I mean, other than living a sane and safe life).
The core question isn’t whether it can legally count as consent but whether the process that a medical team uses when it finds a dead body recognizes the tattoo.
I am not a first responder, but if I had a pile of corpses and one of them had an organ donor tattoo, that corpse would definitely be flagged for special attention and quick transport to the morgue. I wouldn’t count on it being legal for them to make an extra effort to ID one body before another just based on (suspected) organ donor status, but making it into the refrigerator a bit earlier is a benefit.