    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 15 (Monday, April 17, 2000)]
    [Pages 834-835]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 7292--National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, 2000

    April 14, 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 be 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

    [[Page 835]]

    Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
    fourth.
                                                William J. Clinton

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 19,
    2000]

     Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on
    April 20.