2024 Senate Resolution 106

A resolution to designate April 11, 2024, as Living Donor Day.

Whereas, As of February 2024, 103,223 individuals were on the organ donation waiting list managed by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network established under section 373 of the Public Health Service Act; and

Whereas, On average, 17 people die each day while waiting for an organ donation; and

Whereas, In 2023, over 46,000 transplant procedures were performed with organs from over 39,680 deceased donors and over 6,950 living donors; and

Whereas, As of 2022, 170,000,000 people in the United States are registered to be organ and tissue donors, yet the demand for donated organs outweighs the supply of organs made available each day; and

Whereas, A record was set in 2022 for the number of deceased donor organ transplants performed in a single year. For the ninth consecutive year, annual records were set for liver, heart, and lung transplants and kidney transplants exceeded 25,000 for the first year ever; and

Whereas, Transplantation is the therapy of choice, or frequently the only option to ease suffering, restore health, and allow patients to lead more productive lives; and

Whereas, Modern medicine has progressed to allow exponentially more successful transplant surgeries to be performed; and

Whereas, In addition to addressing public health concerns, there are also enormous financial savings to the health care system that can be realized by increasing organ donation and transplantation statewide; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate, That the members of this legislative body designate April 11, 2024, as Living Donor Day.

Offered in the Senate

April 10, 2024

Offered by Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-12) and 9 co-sponsors

Co-sponsored by Sens. Sean McCann (D-19), Stephanie Chang (D-3), Sue Shink (D-14), Rosemary Bayer (D-13), Kevin Daley (R-26), Ruth Johnson (R-24), Erika Geiss (D-1), Mallory McMorrow (D-8) and Sylvia Santana (D-2)

Adopted in the Senate by voice vote