Dr Livingstone, I Presume?

Dr. R. I. S. Gordon

What is presumed when we presume consent?

BACKGROUND The organ donor shortfall in the UK has prompted calls to introduce legislation to allow for presumed consent: if there is no explicit objection to donation of an organ, consent should be presumed. The current debate has not taken in account accepted meanings of presumption in law and science and the consequences for rights of ownership that would arise should presumed consent become...

Doctor David Livingstone

An anatomical exposition of the structure of the human body, trans. Lords of the Admiralty for the effectual cure of such seamen belonging to the Navy as may have ruptures, London, 1734. The paper, read on the occasion of the centenary of David Livingstone's death in what is now the independent African country of Zambia, was divided into three sections. The first part was devoted to Livingstone...

On the Livingstone-Wagner Theorem

Let G be a permutation group on the set Ω and let S be a collection of subsets of Ω, all of size ≥ m for some integer m . For s ≤ m let ns(G, S) be the number of G-orbits on the subsets of Ω which have a representative y ⊆ x with |y| = s and y ⊆ x for some x ∈ S . We prove that if s < t with s + t ≤ m then ns(G, S) ≤ nt(G, S) . A special case of this theorem is the Livingstone-Wagner Theorem wh...

Sonia Livingstone and Leslie Haddon

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