While Washington debated the merits of its proposed health care bill, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a rare public appearance at a hospital in Palo Alto to champion his own cause: organ donation. Last year, Jobs received a liver transplant in Tennessee after taking a leave of absence from work for health reasons. On Friday, at a press conference held at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Jobs spoke in detail about his procedure and about California's proposed measure to help other residents on the state's waiting list.

"This coming week is my one year anniversary," Jobs said, smiling, to the crowd. The Mercury News covered and videotaped the conference (video embedded below), which focused on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's new legislative proposal regarding the expansion of the donor list. The bill would require the state's Department of Motor Vehicles to add an additional field to its drivers license application regarding organ and tissue donation. Currently, the field--which asks applicants to select whether they would like to be a donor or not--is optional. In addition, it would create a "California Living Donor Registry" for kidney patients, matching them with people willing to donate a healthy kidney.

This isn't the first time Jobs has spoken of the importance of this cause. In September of last year,during his first public appearancefollowing the procedure, he noted that he had been the recipient of a generous organ donation from a mid-20's person who died in a car crash, and urged the audience to become organ donors.