National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, 2000

Proclamation 7292 of April 14, 2000

National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week,
2000

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Organ and tissue transplantation offers us the
extraordinary opportunity to share with others one of
our most precious gifts--the gift of life. By donating
tissues and organs, living donors and the families who
have lost loved ones are rewarded with the knowledge
that they have saved and enhanced many lives. Thanks to
donors' generosity and compassion, transplant
recipients across our country are able to work, care
for their families, and look forward to a brighter
future. Thanks to donors' selflessness, many children
who were not expected to see their first birthday are
playing, learning to walk, and entering school.

The future of the thousands of Americans awaiting
transplants, however, depends on the willingness of
their fellow citizens to become organ and tissue
donors. More than 68,000 patients are on the national
organ transplant waiting list; each day, 13 of them
will die because the organs they need have not been
donated; and every 16 minutes, a new name will be added
to that waiting list.

To address this critical and growing need, Vice
President Gore and Secretary of Health and Human
Services Shalala launched the National Organ and Tissue
Donation Initiative in December of 1997. This public-
private partnership was designed to raise awareness of
the success of organ and tissue transplantation and to
educate our citizens about the urgent need for
increased donation. Working with partners such as
health care organizations, estate planning attorneys,
faith communities, educational organizations, the
media, minority organizations, and business leaders,
the Initiative is reaching out to Americans of all
ages, backgrounds, and races, asking them to consider
donation. In its first year alone, the Initiative made
a measurable impact, as organ donation increased by 5.6
percent.

But donations are still falling short nationwide. As we
observe National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week,
I urge all Americans to consider becoming donors.
Becoming a prospective organ and tissue donor is an
easy, two-step process. Potential donors need only
indicate their intention on their driver's license or
donor card, which is available from a number of
organizations by mail or on-line, and notify their
families and friends of their wish to donate. I also
encourage organ and tissue recipients to tell others
how their lives and health have changed because of the
generosity of a donor and his or her family; and I join
the friends and families of donors in remembering with
pride and gratitude all those who gave of themselves so
that others might live.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim April 16 through April 22,
2000, as National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness
Week. I urge all health care professionals, educators,
the media, public and private organizations concerned
with organ donation and transplantation, and all
Americans to join me in promoting greater awareness and
acceptance of this humanitarian action.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.