Bill Text: MO HCR18 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Designates April 2012 as "Donate Life Month" in Missouri
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-04-25 - Referred: Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics (S) [HCR18 Detail]
Download: Missouri-2012-HCR18-Introduced.html
SECOND REGULAR SESSION
House Concurrent Resolution No. 18
96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES WALTON GRAY (Sponsor), PACE, McGEOGHEGAN, FUNDERBURK, WALLINGFORD AND BROWN (50) (Co-sponsors).
WHEREAS, there are currently more than 105,000 people waiting for an organ donation, with the largest waiting group being persons 18 to 49 years of age; and
WHEREAS, more than 7,000 people die each year due to the lack of organs, with an average of 18 people dying each day while on the waiting list for an organ donation; and
WHEREAS, approximately 30,000 people a year have begun new lives thanks to an organ transplant; and
WHEREAS, organs and tissue from a single nonliving donor can be used to benefit more than 50 people. Living donors can donate a kidney and parts of their liver, lung, pancreas, or intestine, and can be evaluated to help a friend, family member, or even donate anonymously to patients of the wait list; and
WHEREAS, raising and promoting awareness and information about the need for organ and tissue donors and encouraging people to become an organ donor and tissue donor is vitally important to increase the number of lives saved and changed for the better through organ donation; and
WHEREAS, every person must be advised of their option to donate an organ. By focusing on education and donor awareness, every person can be informed on the need for organ donors; and
WHEREAS, the following excerpt is from "To Remember Me - I Will Live Forever", written by American Poet Robert Noel Test (1926 - 1994):
"...And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the bed of life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.
Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman.
Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.
Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.
Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.
Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk. Explore every corner of my brain.
Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window..."; and
WHEREAS, public awareness of the great need for organ donation is the key to increasing the number of organ donors and thereby saving lives and improving the quality of life for recipients of organ donation:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-sixth General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, hereby designate April 2012 as "Donate Life Month" in Missouri.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the General Assembly encourages and recommends that people of the State of Missouri observe Organ Donor Life Month through activities which will increase awareness of organ donation and the need for organ donors.
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