HLTH - Bush to set up national organ donor card program

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uters - updated 8:33 PM ET Apr 3

Tuesday April 3 4:55 PM ET

Bush to Set Up National Organ Donor Card Program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In one of its first health initiatives, the Bush administration plans a national program to boost the number of organ donors, officials said on Tuesday.

Every day in the United States about 60 people receive an organ transplant, but another 17 people die because not enough hearts, lungs, livers and other organs are available.

To address the problem, Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson said the department would start issuing national donor cards to identify Americans who are willing to donate their organs and tissues after they die.

Currently, states and many health groups help register organ donors, but there is no national system.

``I don't want you to die. I just want you to sign the card,'' Thompson said at a meeting of the Federation of American Hospitals.

The goal is to recruit tens of thousands of new donors, aides said.

Department figures show more than 75,000 Americans are on the waiting list for organs. Last year alone, 6,100 people died because organs were not available in time.

Thompson, the former governor of Wisconsin, extolled the virtues of organ donation.

``We should love our bodies so much that we want our eyes to be able to continue to see after we die; that we would want our hearts to be able to continue to beat and enjoy each and every day in somebody else's body; and our kidneys and liver to be able to continue to enjoy the great Wisconsin beer,'' he said.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 2001


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