House (also known as House, M.D.) is an American television medical drama that originally ran on the Fox network from November 16, 2004, to May 21, 2012. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in New Jersey. The show's premise originated with Paul Attanasio, while David Shore, who is credited as creator, was primarily responsible for the conception of the title character. The show's executive producers include Shore, Attanasio, Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, and film director Bryan Singer. It was largely filmed in Century City.

Kermit Barron Gosnell is an American doctor in Philadelphia who ran two multi-million dollar abortion practices, alleged to be fraudulent. After a controversy nearly a year earlier, Gosnell was arrested in January 2011, charged with eight counts of murder: one patient who allegedly died under his care after a botched abortion, and seven infants supposedly born alive whose spinal cords Gosnell allegedly severed with scissors. A grand jury recommended charges of murder against Gosnell and several of his employees.CNN stated in March 2011 that prosecutors were considering seeking the death penalty.

According to press reports, Gosnell graduated from the Jefferson Medical School in 1966, and in 1972 set up shop on Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia. The reports say he was well known for providing abortions to poor minority and immigrant women. He allegedly employed his wife, Pearl, at his abortion clinic, and she has since been arrested too. State officials have failed to visit or inspect his abortion clinic since 1993. It is claimed that Gosnell charged $1,600-$3,000 for each late-term abortion. Prosecutors also claim that Gosnell is not certified in either gynecology or obstetrics. The FBI and DEA raided his office in February 2010 and word quickly circulated about the poor and unsanitary conditions inside the building.