The HIV ward, the scene of graphically ill patients when I was training, is long closed because it's no longer needed in most rich countries. When my young neighbour had a stroke, doctors cleverly retrieved the clot suffocating his artery, not just saving his life but also returning it to its full potential.
The Supreme Court of the United States held that Colorado's statutory ban on conversion therapy was 'likely unconstitutional.' Conversion therapy refers to interventions intended to change or suppress an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, typically by promoting heterosexuality or cisgender identity and associated behaviors as the desired outcome.
"Today I'm forced to stand here and beg because an insurance company decided that profits matter more than the life of a man who spent his career protecting this city," said Jones's daughter Rachel Jones at the hearing. He ran into burning buildings, inhaled toxic smoke, and put his life on the line again and again, so that others could survive, Rachel Jones continued. Now, when he needs the help the most, the insurance company provided by this city through Blue Shield is denying him the medication his doctors say is necessary to keep him alive.
One afternoon during her senior year in 2017, my 18-year-old high schooler, Baylie Grogan, spoke to me in a serious tone. "The only thing worse than dying is living in a body that doesn't work," she said. "Promise me you won't ever let me live that way." It was shortly before she left home to start college as a pre-med student. "I promise," I replied, agreeing that such a predicament would be horrifying, and I wouldn't want it either.
The House of Lords used to have a complete veto on the Commons. That changed after a row over the blocking of the then chancellor David Lloyd George's budget in 1909. It sparked a general election, with Lords reform on the ballot. The re-elected Liberal government passed the Parliament Act 1911, stripping that veto power in almost all circumstances, though it does allow delay. In 1949, that delaying power was reduced to a year.