REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S 9TH EUROPEAN DAY FOR ORGAN DONATION
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S 9TH EUROPEAN DAY FOR ORGAN DONATION AND TRANSPLANTATION
The opening of this the ninth European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation draws together delegates from over forty countries who have come to advance our knowledge and understanding, to perfect our responses and to engender even greater hope than we had yesterday. We are grateful that you have made this work and this conference your mission and your business. I welcome each and every one of you and through you I offer thanks to all the professionals who have dedicated their lives to transplant technology, research, practice and care, to all the patients whose courage has allowed this branch of healthcare to gain an unstoppable momentum, to all the organ donors and their families whose luminous generosity has enabled and facilitated this miracle of life renewed and often against a background of deep personal sadness and cruel tragedy, to the voluntary organisations who create the support structures that help people cope with the physical, emotional and financial demands of chronic illness and transplant including the period of transplant anticipation and organ donation, to those who showcase transplantation at its best and bear witness to it in the community whether through the national and international transplant games or the many initiatives which bring the issue of organ donation and transplantation onto our agendas and into the mainstream of our thinking. To this hugely important team I say a resounding thank you and express the hope that in being here, in opening your experiences, ideas and concerns for the scrutiny of one another, there will happen here a process of fresh distillation and fresh insight which will move your work and its prospects into an even more optimistic era.
I welcome you all this morning not only as President of Ireland, but also as Patron of the Irish Kidney Association and I would like to thank Lorraine Costello for her kind invitation to be here today and to have this privilege of opening today’s proceedings. It is a matter of pride to us in Ireland and a witness to the strength of the Association that it has been entrusted by the Council of Europe with the responsibility of hosting this prestigious event, the first time that a patient organisation in any country has done so.
The main purpose of the European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation is to express solidarity and support to all those in need of organ transplantation and to honour donors and their families. However, the hosting of such a major event in Ireland serves a secondary purpose: it highlights the urgent need for continued organ donation: 91 donors gave organs in Ireland last year, 76 the previous year. While the trend is encouraging, the number of donors involved is not huge, and any effort that can be directed toward pushing those life-saving figures upward, while still accepting the enormous personal issues at stake, must be embraced wholeheartedly. This is a gift of health and life that generally though not always implicates strangers in each others’ lives. Where donors and recipients are related we presume a deep mutuality of concern but where they are not we can only be amazed at the generosity of spirit that allows one stranger to give to another the gift of health and life. That spirit arises in the human heart—it is that care for one another that tests us humanly and challenges us. It brings out the very best in us and brings rewards that no book can fully write, no research fully tell. Mainstreaming personal responsibility for the life and health of the random stranger has to be our goal but of course it is happening against a changing medical landscape in which organ donation has itself become something of a victim of medicine’s success. Improved medical care now available in our intensive care units has reduced the number of potential donors. At the same time, the very success and accessibility of transplant technology has raised the expectations of those whose quality of life and life expectancy could be radically improved by organ transplant. On the other side of the equation, improvements in medical care and technology mean that the use of marginal donors and living donors has increased, allowing a slight redressing of the mismatch between donor numbers and waiting lists. It is against that complex backdrop and in that context that you live and work.
The efforts of organisations such as those represented here today, form a vital part of enlarging the pool of proactive, prospective donors through the educative and consciousness-raising work which you do and with great discretion and sensitivity.
To be frank with you, 2007 was a mixed year for the Irish sports lover but thankfully our national pride was salvaged by the heroic successes of our delegation to the World Transplant Games Federation just held in Thailand. As President of Ireland, modesty prohibits me from boasting about the achievements of the Irish team, but as Patron of the Irish Kidney Association, it would be remiss of me not to mention our unprecedented tally of 39 medals! Behind each one a story of transcendence and survival, of a life well lived, a gift of life well-used.
May this ninth European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation fulfil the expectations of its organisers and help elevate the levels of awareness of this issue throughout our European homeland. I hope that you will enjoy these days in Dublin and bring home with you happy memories, new friendships made, old ones renewed, and strengthened networks of common endeavour through which your mission will be better executed and fulfilled in the uncertain and unscripted years ahead.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.