[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.