California enacts law allowing organ donations between HIV-positive patients News
California enacts law allowing organ donations between HIV-positive patients

California Governor Edmund G. Brown [official website] signed Senate Bill 1408 [text] into law on Friday, allowing HIV-positive individuals to become transplant donors to HIV-positive recipients. The California Legislature [official website] passed the bill earlier that day. Brown and the state’s congress moved quickly [AP report] to pass the emergency measure in order to permit an HIV-positive man to donate part of his liver to his HIV-positive husband before it becomes too late to save his life. In 2013, the federal government enacted legislation permitting [KCRA report] transplants between HIV-infected individuals, but it remained a felony to do so in California.

US President Barack Obama [official website] signed into law [press release] the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act in November 2013. He stated this would enable scientists to conduct greater research into organ donation. The HOPE Act [materials] permits such transfers to occur only if the recipient is HIV-positive and the individuals are participating in clinical research and it also requires the Department of Health and Human Services to publish guidelines on transplant research from HIV-infected donors.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Egypt President Anwar Sadat visits Israel

On November 19, 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel, becoming the first leader of an Arab nation to officially visit. Two years later, President Sadat became the first Arab leader to recognize Israel by signing the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. Read President Sadat's address to the Israeli Knesset.

Jay Treaty signed

On November 19, 1794, US Chief Justice John Jay and British foreign secretary Lord Grenville signed a treaty in Philadelphia under which British forces pulled out of the disputed Northwest Territory. Review the Jay Treaty.