US Department of Health and Human Services

National Donor Sabbath: November 13-15, 2009

Donate Life

National Donor Sabbath is part of a donation initiative launched by the United States Department of Health and Human Services in 1997. Observed on Friday through Sunday two weekends before Thanksgiving, the three-day designation seeks to include the days of worship of major religions practiced in the United States.

Donation and transplant professionals join faith communities to focus on the life-saving and enhancing gifts passed to others through organ, tissue and blood stem cell donation. Faith leaders participate in services and programs to increase awareness of donation and transplantation. Those who donate heal and strengthen not just their recipients, but families, friends, and the larger community.

Many people turn to their faith leaders for help when dealing with life and death issues. Nearly every religion in the United States officially supports organ and tissue donation or supports the individual choices of its members. Donation is viewed by most religions as an act of compassion and generosity, and National Donor Sabbath is celebrated in many houses of worship, often with a transplant recipient sharing a personal story of receiving “a second chance at life.”

Awareness of donation increases each year, but so does the need for donors. More than 103,000 people were on the organ transplant waiting list as of September 2009 despite the fact that more than 14,000 donors made almost 28,000 transplants possible in 2008. Each year, thousands of Americans need corneal or other tissue transplants, and an average of 3,000 individuals at any given time are searching for an unrelated blood stem cell donor.
Those who donate organs, tissue, and blood stem cells restore hope and share gifts beyond measure. Transplantation can save lives. If generous individuals and families say yes to donation and register as donors, miracles can happen…

A young woman who received a heart transplant at age 9 now elects college courses that will support her goal of becoming a pediatric cardiologist.
A woman in her 60’s received the gift of a liver from a man who died just a few days before his 93rd birthday.
Donated tissue allowed a world class martial arts medalist to receive an allograft, return to competition, and win two world championships.
A Flamenco dancer who received a double lung transplant continues to teach children to dance and performed his thanks to his donor at the Federal government’s National Donor Recognition Ceremony in July 2009.

Faith communities and individuals wishing to plan National Donor Sabbath events should contact their local organ procurement organization or Donate Life America chapter.

For more information on National Donor Sabbath, contact: Joy Demas, 301-443-7050

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A Parable of Grace

It's a sunny autumn day. The light of the morning sun is shining through the windows of an intensive care unit into patient rooms filled with IV stands and ventilators and heart monitors. In one room, the light reveals the jaundiced face of a 45-year-old teacher dying of liver failure. Next door, an ashen-faced 62-year-old grandfather needs a new heart. Three doors down, the light falls on the face of a 27-year-old mother who gasps for breath with ruined lungs.

None of them has walked in the light for weeks. They are doing all they can just to live another day.

They are waiting for a gift. It is a priceless gift. It is priceless because of what it will give them – new life and health and time with their families – and also because of what it costs – the life of someone else. How do you pray for a new heart when you know that it comes from someone else's death?

In another hospital, a family grieves. Someone they love has died and the autumn sunlight is swallowed in darkness.

Someone tells them of the possibility of donating their loved one's organs. They say it would be just like their loved one to want to help someone else. They talk about sparing some other family the pain that they are experiencing. So they choose to give the priceless gift to nameless strangers.

A 45-year-old teacher receives a liver, a 62-year-old grandfather receives a heart, and a 27-year-old mother receives new lungs. They all pray for a grieving family they may never know.

As a hospital chaplain, I have been with all of these people more times than I can count. It is a miracle for those who were dying, and also a miracle for those who give. What a profound and wonderful miracle. What a parable of grace.

— Chaplain Joel De Fehr