The social phenomenon known as professional nursing is kaleidoscopic. Nursing is embedded in an intricate network of relationships at all levels. This precludes any simple answer to the question of responsibility in setting limits to professional autonomy. It is useful to examine some of the pieces that one puts into one’s kaleidoscope to look at the question. Asking any question which involves multiple relationships risks finding several possible answers which then require significant decisions and choices having farreaching implications for individuals and groups. “Solutions” often challenge tenaciously held assumptions and values: this question is no different.