Presidential Document2023-07312
National Donate Life Month, 2023
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
April 5, 2023
Signed
March 31, 2023
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 65 (Wednesday, April 5, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 5, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 20369-20370]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-07312]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 88 , No. 65 / Wednesday, April 5, 2023 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 20369]]
Proclamation 10544 of March 31, 2023
National Donate Life Month, 2023
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
More than 400,000 Americans in every corner of our
country are alive today thanks to the tremendous
generosity and courage of organ donors. During National
Donate Life Month, we honor donors and their families
who have turned pain into purpose by sharing the gift
of life with loved ones in need or countless others
whom they have never met. We encourage everyone to
follow their lead and register as an organ, eye,
tissue, or bone marrow donor, bringing hope and healing
to so many others.
Last year, American doctors completed our Nation's one-
millionth organ transplant, a tremendous milestone in
the history of a procedure pioneered and honed in
America. We are now performing transplants at a record
pace, with higher success rates and increased lifespans
for recipients. Still, every 10 minutes, someone new
joins the waiting list--fighting organ failure or blood
cancer, their futures hanging in the balance. More than
100,000 people, including 1,900 children, are currently
on the waiting list. A majority of them are people of
color, for whom it can sometimes be more difficult to
find a good donor match. Seventeen Americans die every
day while waiting for a transplant.
We each have the power to change that. Just one person
can save up to 8 lives through organ donation after
they die and improve another 75 lives through eye and
tissue donation. Registering as a donor does not change
the quality of care that you receive in your lifetime.
It allows you to give countless others a second chance
at life and your family to find peace amid grief while
leaving an extraordinary legacy of compassion and
dignity.
Each year, thousands of Americans choose to donate an
organ while still living, a profoundly courageous act
of connection and healing.
My Administration is working across the board to
support organ donation and to make sure living donors
and recipients have the affordable health care and
prescription drug coverage they need before and after a
transplant and throughout their lives. We have acted to
extend Medicare coverage of vital drugs for kidney
transplant patients. And just recently, we launched the
Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN)
Modernization Initiative to better serve the needs of
patients and families across the country. We have
published data on organ donors, organ procurements,
transplant waitlists, and transplant recipients. We
will foster competition, working to promote the use of
innovative technology and ensure the highest quality of
care is provided to patients. We are committed to a
modernized OPTN that is transparent, accountable, and
equitable.
We have also launched the transformational Advanced
Research Projects Agency for Health, securing $2.5
billion for breakthroughs in the prevention, detection,
and treatment of cancer and other deadly diseases,
which could one day make many transplants unnecessary.
America is a great Nation because we are a good
people--generous, decent, and fair. We look out for our
neighbors and lend a hand to those in need. Few things
demonstrate that more than the act of becoming an organ
[[Page 20370]]
donor. Any adult can register, regardless of age or
medical history; in many States, doing so is as simple
as checking a box when renewing your driver's license
or signing up online. I encourage all Americans to
visit <a href="http://organdonor.gov">organdonor.gov</a> to learn more about organ, eye,
and tissue donation or <a href="http://bloodstemcell.hrsa.gov">bloodstemcell.hrsa.gov</a> for more
information on donating bone marrow. We celebrate
everyone who makes this deeply generous choice to give
others the gift of life.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by the authority vested
in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim April 2023 as National
Donate Life Month. I call on every person who can to
share the gift of life and hope by becoming an organ,
eye, tissue, or bone marrow donor. I also call on this
Nation to observe National Pediatric Transplant Week
from April 23 through April 29, a week dedicated to
ending the pediatric transplant waiting list.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
seventh.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2023-07312
Filed 4-4-23; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on April 5, 2023.
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