Oct 6, 2010 09:51 GMT  ·  By
Steve Jobs speech (introduced by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) - screenshot
   Steve Jobs speech (introduced by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) - screenshot

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Senator Elaine Alquist teamed up to support signing new legislation to establish the U.S.’s first nationwide kidney donor registry.

Apple’s CEO, as many fans of his should know, underwent a liver transplant last year thanks to which he was able to return to Apple and reclaim his CEO position.

Jobs took a six month leave (during which Apple COO took over Jobs’ duties) to ensure everything goes well with his liver transplant.

The operation was done in Spain, where there wasn’t a waiting list for the organ.

As Governor Schwarzenegger put it, Jobs believes his financial status helped him get his new liver faster than normal. The CEO therefore now wants everyone who is in need of a new liver to be able to do the same.

Jobs provided the impetus for the bill. His speech has been reproduced by Softpedia in its entirely below.

“This new law will save thousands of lives in California each year, where there’s not enough organ donors to go around.

It’s good for everyone. The donor’s family knows that their loved one is making it possible for others to live, the really talented surgeons and the hospitals can save the lives they’ve trained to save, the donor recipients are given the gift of an extended life.

Even the insurance companies benefit, because the cost of transplantation, though a lot, is still less than the cost for chronic and end of life care.

As a transplant recipient, I know how precious this gift of life is, and on behalf of the future transplant recipients who will now receive organs because of this new law, I want to thank Governor Schwarzenegger, Senator elaine Alquist, and all of the legislators who voted for this law.

Thank you all very much.

It’s my pleasure to introduce senator Elaine Alquist.”

Steve Jobs’ speech starts at 9 (nine) minutes into the video.