Florida Statute 765.5155
“Donor registry; education program”
What it means
Florida's donor registry has a name — the Joshua Abbott Organ and Tissue Registry — and a statute. The state contracts with a nonprofit (Florida-based groups get priority) to run it, and the registry must allow immediate access to organ and tissue donation records 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by electronic and telephonic methods.
Records flow in two ways: online donor registration and the driver license and ID card process. The contractor also runs a continuing education program — aimed at medical professionals, law enforcement, high school students, minorities, and the public — funded from designated trust-fund deposits and voluntary contributions.
- The registry is designated the Joshua Abbott Organ and Tissue Registry.
- Run under state contract with a nonprofit, with priority for existing Florida-based organizations.
- 24/7 immediate access — electronic and telephonic — to donation records.
- Accepts online registrations and records submitted through the driver license/ID process.
- Includes a continuing donor-education program reaching medical professionals, law enforcement, students, and the public.
How it plays out
The registry is what actually gets checked in the hours after a death — not the will, not the safe. That's why our advance-directive process ends with a registry step: confirm the client's entry says what the client now wants, in both directions. Enrolling takes minutes online; so does removal under §765.516. The planning failure we see is stale state: a registration from a long-ago license renewal that no longer matches the client's wishes, discovered by the family at the worst moment.
Questions people ask
