Balancing Act

by Roger Hughes

The scales of medical justice are sometimes cruel masters

(Editor's Note: My guitar playing friend and sometime guru, Roger Hughes is about to join our geezer ranks and / or become a senior citizen. It appears that his cortical neurons are still interacting well with one another and with the rest of his central nervous system, a bonus at this stage of maturation. The current Guest Column is his regular Drift on the St Luke's Health Initiatives website.)

We just finished the report, Balancing Act: Ethics in Medicine, so I've been thinking lately about balancing act as an apt metaphor for the times, and for me personally.

In clinical medical ethics, balancing act refers to weighing the pros and cons in various ethically charged cases where values and goals can come into conflict (e.g., end-of-life, futility of care) and then making some kind of reasoned, all-things-considered judgment about which course of action to follow.

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