The House Insurance Committee passed a bill that would prohibit discrimination against a potential organ transplant recipient based solely on the person’s physical or mental disability.

Senate Bill 378 is a request from Edmond parents Rhys and Neely Gay, whose middle child, Everett, age three, was diagnosed with Down Syndrome shortly after he was born and has a congenital heart defect.

Everett is healthy after undergoing five surgeries but along the way, his parents learned that individuals with mental or physical challenges could be denied a life-saving transplant simply on the basis of a disability, so they began advocating for change.