Health professionals faced with refusal of life-saving treatment may wish to override a person's wishes, especially if that person suffers from a mental disorder. Mental illness does not automatically mean a patient is incapable of making decisions of this nature. It is not always clear whether an individual is legally competent to decide whether to undergo treatment or not. This article discus...

The food refusal of a 6-year-old girl with destructive behavior was treated using stimulus fading, reinforcement, and escape extinction. Intake increased and compliance with prompting procedures remained relatively stable despite the increased consumption requirement.

This article examines one kind of conscientious refusal: the refusal of healthcare professionals to treat sexual dysfunction in individuals with a history of sexual offending. According to what I call the orthodoxy, such refusal is invariably impermissible, whereas at least one other kind of conscientious refusal-refusal to offer abortion services-is not. I seek to put pressure on the orthodoxy...

BACKGROUND There is debate concerning methods for calculating numbers needed to treat (NNT) from results of systematic reviews. METHODS We investigate the susceptibility to bias for alternative methods for calculating NNTs through illustrative examples and mathematical theory. RESULTS Two competing methods have been recommended: one method involves calculating the NNT from meta-analytical e...

BACKGROUND Enucleation (eye removal) is often the only curative treatment for the childhood eye cancer retinoblastoma, yet parental refusal of enucleation commonly contributes to treatment delay and poor survival globally. METHODS Physicians who treat retinoblastoma were surveyed to glean underlying reasons for treatment refusal. RESULTS Refusal rates were higher when less time was spent wi...