In Pakistan, as in many non‐Western cultures, decisions about a patient's health care are often made by the family or the doctor. For doctors educated in the West, the Pakistani approach requires striking a balance between preserving indigenous values and carving out room for patients to participate in their medical decisions.

Acceptance of traditional cultural values, including entrenched gender roles in society, deters women from practising medicine. To enable greater participation of women in the medical field, steps are required that will allow women to better manage family and work conflicts.

The Ethics Committee of The Transplantation Society convened a meeting on pediatric deceased donation of organs in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 21 to 22, 2014. Thirty-four participants from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, Europe, and North and South America explored the practical and ethical issues pertaining to pediatric deceased donation and developed recommendations for policy and practice. Their expertise was inclusive of pediatric intensive care, internal medicine, and surgery, nursing, ethics, organ donation and procurement, psychology, law, and sociology. The report of the meeting advocates the routine provision of opportunities for deceased donation by pediatric patients and conveys an international call for the development of evidence-based resources needed to inform provision of best practice care in deceased donation for neonates and children.

We report a case of invasive retroperitoneal zygomycotic infection caused by Basidiobolus ranarum in a healthy 8-year-old boy. The youngster responded dramatically to potassium iodide. The clinical and pathological features are reviewed to highlight the problems encountered in the management of this rare infection.

Dissatisfied with standard techniques for pulmonary diagnosis in children, we have evaluated the usefulness of thoracoscopy for diagnosis of intrathoracic pathology. Between July 1, 1975, and May 1, 1978, 65 thoracoscopy procedures have been performed in 57 children at the University of Florida. Thirty-four procedures were performed in immunosuppressed patients to rule out Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Twenty of these patients were proven to have Pneumocystis pneumonia, a diagnostic accuracy of 100%. Twelve nonimmunosuppressed patients underwent thoracoscopy for the diagnosis of persistent pulmonary infiltrates with a 100% diagnostic accuracy. Fifteen procedures were performed for the diagnosis of intrathoracic tumors. In two patients, previously unsuspected areas of involvement were encountered while in two patients false-negative biopsies were obtained. Four patients underwent therapeutic thoracoscopy. In three small infants, unsuccessful attempts were made to unroof pulmonary cysts through the thoracoscope and one patient underwent a talc poudrage. Thoracoscopy has proven to be a safe and rapid procedure which may be performed under local anesthesia without need for endotracheal intubation. In patients with pulmonary infiltrates, the accuracy has been 100%. The capability of viewing the entire hemithorax has proven valuable in evaluating children with intrathoracic tumors. Complications have included pneumothorax in six patients and bleeding in two.