 The asymmetrical approach to decisions simply extends this basic idea—this desire to balance concern for autonomy and protection of welfare—further. Once we recognize that choosing one way can place welfare at much greater risk than choosing the other way, it makes sense to strike the autonomy-welfare balance differently for each prong of the choice. Since welfare is more at risk in one case than the other, we set the threshold for selecting that option higher (thereby slightly reducing the chance that the subject will be free to make it). But since welfare is not at risk in the other case, the threshold remains low, to maximize the chance that the patient will be free to make that choice if she is inclined to.