Should doctors intentionally do less than the best?

The papers of Burley and Harris, and Draper and Chadwick, in this issue, ra ise a problem: what should doctors do when patients request an option which is not the best available? (1) (2) This commentary argues that doctors hav e a duty to offer that option which will result in the individual affected by that choice enjoying the highest level of wellbeing. Doctors can deviate from this duty and submaximise-bring about an outcome that is less than th e best-only if there are good reasons to do so. The desire to have a child which is genetically related provides little, if any, reason to submaximise . The implication for cloning, preimplantation diagnosis and embryo transfe r is that doctors should only produce a clone or transfer embryos expected to enjoy a level of wellbeing which is less than that enjoyed by other chil dren the couple could have, if there is a good reason to employ that techno logy. This paper sketches what might constitute a good reason to submaximis e.