Race and place of residence can have a staggering impact on the course and quality of the medical treatment a patient receives, according to new research showing that blacks with diabetes or vascular disease are nearly five times more likely than whites to have a leg amputated and that women in Mississippi are far less likely to have mammograms than those in Maine.

Two weeks after deciding that same-sex couples are entitled to marry, the California Supreme Court appeared inclined today to rule that physicians may not discriminate against gays in medical treatment, regardless of the doctors' religious views.

During oral argument here, the state high court considered the appeal of Lupita Benitez, a lesbian who claims that two obstetricians in San Diego County declined to perform an intrauterine insemination with donated sperm because of her sexual orientation.