By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Health and Welfare Minister Jeon Jae-hee and her ministry's 1,795 officials pledged to donate their organs, Friday, the first time the entire staff of a ministry has promised organ donation en mass.
The minister visited Myeongdong Cathedral in downtown Seoul at 11 a.m. with heads of the Korea Food and Drug Administration and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and handed over a total of 1,795 signed declarations pledging organ donation to Kim Un-hoe, president of the One-Body One-Spirit organization, a civic group founded by the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan to promote organ donation.
``I'm very happy to see increasing public participation in long-overdue organ donation in the wake of Kim's donation of his cornea to the blind,'' Jeon said. ``Our ministry and the civic group will join hands to promote the campaign around the country.''
The campaign will begin Monday and a total of 15 organizations, including the aforementioned two, will participate, the ministry said.
It is also considering declaring Feb. 26, when South Korea's first Cardinal, Kim, passed away, as a promotional day for organ donation.