For Immediate Release
	CONTACT: Christi Powers State Bar of Wisconsin (608) 250-6025

Life Planning 2000 earns national recognition

July 20, 2000 - The State Bar's Life Planning 2000 campaign is receiving the First Family Pledge Award of Thanks from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. Governor Tommy Thompson recommended Life Planning 2000 for the outreach award, which will be presented at a dinner on Friday, July 21 at 7 p.m. at the Concourse Hotel. The governor is scheduled to attend.

Life Planning 2000 is a successful partnership between the State Bar of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Health & Hospital Association and the State Medical Society of Wisconsin to encourage adults of all ages to discuss and document their preferences for future medical care, including organ and tissue donation, before personal health crises arise.

To do so, hundreds of volunteer attorneys and health care professionals "hit the streets" this spring in more than 50 Wisconsin communities to educate the public on advance health care planning and organ and tissue donation. The governor showed his support for the campaign earlier this year when he signed a proclamation recognizing May 1-5 as Life Planning Week.

"I am honored that our governor recognized the quality of the Life Planning 2000 program in educating Wisconsin citizens about their rights in health care decision-making," said State Bar Past President Leonard L. Loeb. " It has been a pleasure working with our friends in the medical profession on such an important topic."

Although the statewide Life Planning 2000 campaign officially ended in May, hundreds of citizens are still hearing the message by way of A Gift to Your Family consumer guide, produced by the participating organizations as a long-lasting public educational piece. Guides are available by contacting the State Bar at (800) 728-7788 and online at the State Bar's consumer Web site.

The American Society of Transplant Surgeons was started 27 years ago to represent the surgeons - and later the scientists and physicians - who have taken transplantation from a pioneering procedure to an increasingly common therapy that gives more than 20,000 Americans a second chance at life each year.

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