The Case of Cholesterol Screening Controversy commonly surrounds the detection of disease. Nearly everyone now agrees that secondary prevention through cholesterol screening works. This is shadowy territory, where the hard data trail off into uncertainty.
Decision making under uncertainty is hard on everyone.
It may be more accurate, however, to view the two positions as flowing from the two opposite ends of a single moral question. More and better data would no doubt sharpen the focus of the cholesterol debate. A good many medical practices fall into this gray zone, raising the melancholy thought that controversy over such practices is inevitable. However, there's nothing here that we can't do something about. And anyone who needs convincing that medicine, even at its scientific best, is always a social act need look no further than the current debate on cholesterol screening.