Another chapter has opened in the tortured history of the status of Gillick competence. Never before has Gillick been extended to permit a mature child to make autonomous medical decisions over and above the curial 'parens patriae' power. In 2013, two judicial decisions promulgated from different Australian courts are in conflict over this most fundamental of questions. This Article situates th...

T his study explores how the format of written information presented to children affects their understanding of the concepts behind randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Its aim was to identify whether this understanding could be increased by altering the style of information forms. We hypothesised that focusing information in a question and answer format, or presenting concepts as a story, woul...

Comprehensive immune function by integrated score was assessed in 158 operable, 55 inoperable, and 52 metastatic breast cancer patients relative to 107 healthy controls. The score was derived from in vivo response to PPD and DNCB and in vitro lymphocyte stimulation by PPD and PHA. Proportion of E-RFC was significantly lower in patients than in controls but was not found to correlate directly wi...

119 children with recurrent respiratory infections were investigated for immunocompetence. They were divided into two groups. The first, group A, comprised children who had had predominantly upper respiratory infections. Group B comprised those who had had repeated pneumonia in addition. The groups were comparable for gender and age (mean 4.2 years). All the children had reduced neutrophil chem...

Lymphocyte blastogenic studies to autologous leukemia cells were carried out in 35 patients with adult acute leukemia. The effects of serum on this response and correlation with studies of general immunocompetence were studied. Twenty-five of 35 patients had positive blastogenesis. Nine patients with acute myelogenous leukemia had complete or partial abrogation of this response in autologous se...

Lymphocyte blastogenic studies to autologous leukemia cells were carried out in 35 patients with adult acute leukemia. The effects of serum on this response and correlation with studies of general immunocompetence were studied. Twenty-five of 35 patients had positive blastogenesis. Nine patients with acute myelogenous leukemia had complete or partial abrogation of this response in autologous se...

Female preference for dominant males has been found in many species, and it is generally thought that winners of male-male competition are of superior quality. Success in contests probably depends on male condition and overall health. Thus, females could avoid infection and gain genetic benefits in terms of more viable offspring by mating with dominant males. In the present study, we tested whe...