HARRISBURG — A Cranberry Township resident was scheduled to speak today to a state House committee in support of a proposed new organ donation law.

Liz Wertz Evans, a registered nurse, was to testify this morning at a house judiciary committee hearing in Harrisburg to give support for the proposed Donate Life PA Act, House Bill 30.

The bill would create provisions to better educate high school, college and medical school students about organ donation.

It also would change state law to better define procedures and protect the rights of donors.

Wertz Evans planned to tell the story of her daughter, Amanda.

Amanda was born with infantile spasms, a type of epilepsy, that she lived with throughout her life. She died at 14 after complications from a surgery to correct scoliosis.

Some of Amanda’s organs were donated, which in turn helped save multiple lives. Through the donations, Amanda’s life was given a purpose, which has been very comforting to her family, Wertz Evans said.

“I’m hoping that they will see how vital the process is, not only to those patients receiving organs, but to those of us who have had a family member die,” she said.

“It was a horrible, horrible thing for her to die so we knew that her life had some purpose.”

The family was even able to meet the recipient of Amanda’s liver, who was 12-years-old at the time, and still is healthy today, 12 years later.

The meeting was arranged through the local branch of the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, which also contacted Wertz Evans to ask her to speak at the committee hearing.

Informing young people about organ donation and dispelling some of the negative myths hopefully will encourage more people to sign up as donors, she said.

The version of the bill currently in the Senate (Senate Bill 850) has already passed through the judiciary committee. The house bill was first referred to committee in June 2013.

For more information on the bill, or to sign up as an organ donor, visit savealifenowpa.org.