Balancing benefits and harms in health care: Ethical dimension was not discussed in theme issue

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7463.458

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Richard E Ashcroft, Leverhulme senior lecturer in medical ethics (r.ashcroft@imperial.ac.uk)

Imperial College London, Medical Ethics Unit, London W6 8RP

EDITOR—The interesting selection of papers in the BMJ on balancing harms and benefits in clinical medicine and public health all seem to make a questionable assumption. While all speak of “balancing” harms and benefits, in the arguments presented the authors assume that a purely rational judgment can be made about …