Boy or girl--parental choice?

Immunisation and the law: compulsion or parental choice?

A debate has been developing in Nursing Standard on the issue of childhood immunizations. This article adds to the discussion by considering the likelihood of legislation being introduced to make immunisation compulsory in the UK. It also discusses how the courts approach an application for childhood vaccination against the wishes of a parent and the implications for nursing practice of that ap...

Evolution of eusocial behavior: offspring choice or parental parasitism?

Boy or girl: gender preferences from a Darwinian point of view.

This article reviews evolutionary biological studies of sex-biased post-natal parental investment that may be relevant to the issue of preconception gender selection. The focus is on tests of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, which predicts that natural selection has favoured parents that bias investment in favour of the sex with the best reproductive prospects. Because resource abundance and sca...

Sex Determination: One for a boy, two for a girl?

Sex determination in flies relies on the different ratio of X chromosomes to autosomes in XX females and XY males. Mammals have a male-determining Y-linked gene, but may retain dosage-related elements.

Boy/girl differences in risk for reading disability: potential clues?

The authors conducted a case-control study to determine whether risk factors for reading disability (RD) differentially affect boys and girls. The study population included all children born between 1976 and 1982 in Olmsted County, Minnesota (n = 5,701). A total of 303 RD cases were identified by using intelligence quotient and achievement test scores collected from school and medical records. ...