[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 15 (Monday, April 19, 1999)]
[Page 667]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7185--National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, 1999

April 16, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Organ donation is one of humanity's most noble expressions of 
compassion and generosity. It reflects the extraordinary selflessness of 
the donor and gives the recipient a second chance to experience life's 
abundant blessings.
    For many people across our country, receiving an organ or tissue 
transplant means relief from suffering and a marked improvement in the 
quality of their lives. For others, it literally means the difference 
between life and death. And the demand for such donations continues to 
grow. In the last six years, the number of people on the national organ 
transplant list has doubled, from more than 30,000 in 1993 to more than 
62,000 patients today. A new name is added to that list every 18 
seconds.
    Fortunately, thanks to remarkable medical breakthroughs, each of us 
has the power to improve these troubling statistics. In December of 
1997, Vice President Gore and Secretary of Health and Human Services 
(HHS) Donna Shalala launched the National Organ and Tissue Donation 
Initiative to raise awareness of the successes of transplantation and to 
educate our citizens about the urgent and continuing need for organ and 
tissue donations. Building on this effort, the Health Care Financing 
Administration now requires hospitals participating in Medicaid and 
Medicare to notify organ procurement organizations of all deaths and 
imminent deaths at their facilities and to train their personnel to 
discuss donation with the families of potential donors. Judging from the 
positive impact of similar legislation in Pennsylvania, we anticipate 
that this new Federal regulation will substantially increase the number 
of donations throughout the country.
    Becoming a donor is simple, requiring only that we complete and 
carry a donor card and inform our families and friends about our wish to 
donate. This second step is a critical one because, according to a new 
study issued by HHS, almost all Americans would agree to donate their 
loved one's tissue or organs if they knew their loved one had requested 
it. Fewer than half would consent if they did not know their loved one's 
wishes.
    During National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, I urge all 
Americans to become potential donors. By doing so, we can bring new hope 
and improved lives to thousands of our fellow citizens and hasten the 
day when no American on the organ transplant waiting list loses the race 
against time.
    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 18 
through April 24, 1999, 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, the clergy, 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 sixteenth day 
of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-third.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:51 a.m., April 20, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
April 21.