We ought to be providing protective sanctuaries for the Kurdish rebels. That means finding some places where they can come and to which we will then be able to provide food and water and medical help.

The sort of thinking at the time was 'Well we're giving you access to medical care which you wouldn't otherwise be able to get so your payment is that we get to use you in research.'

Medical research in the twentieth century mostly takes place in the lab in the Renaissance though researchers went first and foremost to the library to see what the ancients had said.

Was this an old disease and if so which one? If it was new what did that say about the state of medical knowledge? And in any case how could physicians make sense of it?

The grounding in natural sciences which I obtained in the course of my medical studies including preliminary examinations in botany zoology physics and chemistry was to become decisive in determining the trend of my literary work.

I went to Duke University in the medical track. And then I decided I wanted to do something more creative so I switched to biochemistry at Nebraska.

I was proud to share the stories of my friends at Georgetown Law who have suffered dire medical consequences because our student insurance does not cover contraception for the purpose of preventing pregnancy.

To make a coverage decision doesn't one have to make a medical judgment?

And it was back in the mid-1980s and as I point out in a piece that was when we are spending about eight percent of our gross domestic product on health care. And even then we had the impression that so much of the excessive aggressive medical treatment that took place at the end of life was not only unnecessary but it was cruel.

On bad days I think I'd like to be a plastic surgeon who goes to Third World countries and operates on children in villages with airlifts and then I think 'Yeah right I'm going to go back to undergraduate school and take all the biology I missed and then go to medical school.' No. No.