[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 77 (Thursday, April 20, 2000)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 21113-21114]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-10003]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 77 / Thursday, April 20, 2000 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 21113]]


                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.

[[Page 21114]]

                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.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 00-10003
Filed 4-19-00; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P