ABSTRACT
Benefits and harms are wedded like horses and carriages, or bows and arrows. This chapter examines what is a benefit and what is a harm? It explores where the balance of risk and benefit appear to lie? The chapter focuses on what should one do with this knowledge, particularly in the context of the biopsychosocial gaze of primary care? Benefits and harms are, in the eye of the doctor, often medico-legal tabulations that must be cited correctly, in purpose to ensure informed consent and legal protection. In order to place the values held by individuals about risks and benefits, one need to know what outcomes, and in what quantity, one can reasonably expect from medical interventions. Medical decision-making is not simply to do with weighing up one against the other, but about the burdens of healthcare, the priority it has, ones' family, work and interests, philosophy of life, view of death, quality of living, purpose, spirituality and mental health.
