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REMARKS BY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON,SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation, Herndon, Md. DATE: Dec. 3, 2001
Thank you so much, Betty James Duke, for that kind introduction, and allow me to express my appreciation to you and all of the fine people at HRSA who helped organize this meeting of the advisory committee.
It is wonderful to see all of you from every corner of the United States. Thank you for making the trip to Herndon, the gateway to Dulles International Airport.
The airways of America are safe, and thanks to the new airline security bill the President has signed, they're getting even safer.
Your presence here shows that you're not letting the aftermath of terrorism weaken your commitment to something that means so much to thousands upon thousands of Americans - organ, tissue and bone marrow donation.
It is a commitment to human life itself. Today, we gather to pursue the all-important goal of healing people's wounds, curing their diseases, and above all, saving their lives by expanding the availability of donor organs.
Allow me to stress that one point. The committee has a broad mission, and you will be talking about many things. But more than anything else, I would like you to focus on making more organs available.
Let's find ways to encourage people to embrace organ and tissue donation, and to have their wishes respected. Let's give the transplant community the tools it needs to succeed in its important work.
Today marks the first meeting of the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation. Public service is a great responsibility that I am confident you take seriously, and on behalf of President Bush and myself, let me thank you so very much for your willingness to serve.
Of course, it is also a personal pleasure for me to be with you, to see old friends and to meet new ones, and to be surrounded by some of the brightest minds in medicine.
Dr. Nancy Ascher, I include you in that category. Thank you for your service as chairman of the advisory committee. I appreciate your leadership and insight into the many issues involved in organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
Jack Kress, my thanks to you, too, for serving as executive director of this important group. Jack has accepted a big job in promoting this administration's commitment to organ donation.and I deeply appreciate your efforts.
I mentioned the bright minds we have with us today, but by no means are they limited to doctors, nurses and transplant specialists.
We have smart, caring people from throughout the transplant community, including recipients, members of organ procurement organizations, and others committed to improving the lives of Americans.
We are honored that the distinguished actor Larry Hagman is joining us as a committee member. In a Bush Administration, you always keep an eye out for Texans when you're making appointments. Larry, you're a two- fer: a Fort Worth native who starred on "Dallas."
Speaking from the wisdom of personal experience, you have become a valuable national spokesman for National Kidney Foundation's U.S. Transplant Games . and for organ donation in general.
A major focus of HHS's work involves public education, drawing attention to the vital need for more donor organs and tissues. Involving a high-profile, well-known and respected person such as yourself brings great dividends.
And it is a pleasure to acknowledge my good friend, Dr. Hans Sollinger, here from Madison, where he chairs the transplant division at the university of Wisconsin hospital. Hans is also director of the Tissue Typing Laboratory.
Dr. Sollinger has helped fire my passion for organ donation, bringing very important, very personal perspectives to the desperate need for donated organs. We worked together to produce public-service announcements, created a Governor's Medal of Honor for donor families, and helped pass legislation to require an education program in drivers' ed classes.
We made organ and tissue donation a priority in Wisconsin, and on my very first day in Washington, I vowed it would be a priority for Health and Human Services, as well.
So, on April 17th of this year, I launched the gift of life donation initiative to reduce the country's critical shortage of donors. We announced a "Workplace Partnership or Life," bringing together employers, unions and other groups in a nationwide network to promote donation and other pro-donation activities.
I called for a national conference on donor registries, which took place last week in Bethesda. People from across the country contributed their experiences and insights to this conference, which included a discussion of state and national registries as ways to make a donor's wishes known. Twenty states already sponsor registries, and we want to explore what works and what doesn't.
We created a model donor card, and have begun work on a Congressional Gift of Life Medal to honor families who consent to organ donations.
We are also making excellent progress on development of an organ donation curriculum. HHS has gathered various curricula - including materials like study guides and videotapes - from every state with classroom education programs on organ and tissue donation.
In Wisconsin, we developed a mandatory donation component for drivers' ed courses. We refer to it as the Nachreiner bill, named after a generous young organ donor named Kelly Nachreiner, whose gift was an inspiration to me. Other states place this instruction in their health or "community service" classes.
In February, a dozen experts will gather at HHS to review all these materials. We'll have recommendations for states and educators, I hope, ready for the next school year.
My sincere wish is that these and many other initiatives - public and private..state, local and federal - will lead to a steadily increasing number of available transplant organs.
With more availability, we can spend less time on the emotional and divisive issue of allocation.
Unfortunately, a shortage of organs does now exist, and we must therefore make certain a fair and equitable system of organ allocation is in place. I have followed the debates within the organ procurement and transplant network, and know there is a growing consensus in the medical community on ways of assessing medical necessity and ensuring the fairest possible distribution of available organs.
To those of you who are working on this issue, rest assured, your efforts have my support. We are all striving for a system that best serves the needs of patients, donors and their families.
It used to be that if you saw me on television, odds were I was promoting donations. Now, I'm probably talking about anthrax, or smallpox, or vaccine procurement.
Of course I would much rather be discussing the Gift of Life than the threat of bioterrorism. Yet we live in a changed world, a world that places new and unexpected demands upon all of us.
But you can be certain that my commitment to this important cause is as strong as ever. Organ and tissue donation is a priority for HHS and will remain a priority.
And please know that I intend to rely on you, on your insights, as Health and Human Services does everything within its power - within my power - to promote organ and tissue donation. You are there are the front lines, talking to the families, caring for the patients, and always communicating the vital need for donation.
Our commitment will continue. Because in the end, we all understand that this is a matter of health and life for our family members, colleagues, friends and all fellow citizens throughout the country. You can all tell moving stories, I am sure, of pain and loss translated into hope for renewed life.
Let me share one more story I find especially touching.
This month in Fresno, California, members of the Hispanic community gathered at a local church on National Donor Sabbath to remember 19-year-old Maribel Cordova. Maribel had received an identification card this year and told her mother she wanted to become an organ donor.
Two weeks later, a broken blood vessel in her head tragically cut her life short. Because of Maribel's selfless act, others lived. A 35-year-old man from northern California received her lungs. A 66-year-old Southern California got her liver. Maribel's left kidney was placed in a 50-year-old Pennsylvania woman, and her right kidney went to a 73-year-old woman from Oklahoma.
As a local transplant outreach coordinator said at the church services, "Don't take your organs to heaven. God knows we need them here." And, in moving words we can all identify with, Maribel's mother said, "She's still alive in those people."
These are the experiences of hope out of loss . of life out of death. that touch and motivate us.that drive us to do everything within our power to promote organ and tissue donation. Through education, outreach, science and the vitally important work of people like you, we will reach that future when organ donation is, quite simply, a fact of life.
Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Advisory Committee, would you now stand while I administer the oath of office:
I,
To all of you, thank you so much for your service to the United States and to the American people.
God bless you, and God bless this great country of ours.