Refusing the Child: Weininger, Edelman, Kertész

Gerald Maurice Edelman.

Professor Gerald Maurice Edelman died in La Jolla, California, on May 17, 2014, at the age of 84. His wife, Maxine Morrison Edelman, and three children, Judith, Eric, and David, survive him. We, of course, remember him for his brilliant scientific career. However, I have received many comments from people who, upon hearing of his death, remarked along lines similar to these: “It’s the end of an...

Kertész line of thermally activated breakdown phenomena.

Based on a fiber bundle model we substantially extend the phase-transition analogy of thermally activated breakdown of homogeneous materials. We show that the competition of breaking due to stress enhancement and due to thermal fluctuations leads to an astonishing complexity of the phase space of the system: varying the load and the temperature a phase boundary emerges, separating a Griffith-ty...

Refusing to be suppressed

On page 737, Fahlén et al. show that colitis-inducing effector T cells that cannot respond to the suppressive cytokine TGFrefuse to be controlled by regulatory T (T reg) cells. Naturally occurring T reg cells suppress the activity of effector CD4 T cells and are essential for the prevention of autoimmune disease and chronic inflammation. TGFappears to be required for T reg cell activity, but de...

Torsion of Undescended Testis in a 14-Month-Old Child Refusing to Bear Weight

In this report, we discuss a case of a 14-month-old male presenting in the emergency department with refusal to bear weight on his left leg. Plain radiographic studies revealed no evidence of effusion, fracture, or dislocation. Laboratory studies were significant for an elevated white blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and C-reactive protein. Further studies included unremarkable...

The ethics of refusing medical treatment.