Nursing ethics is examined within the context of the health care controversy concerning care v cure. Yarling and McElmurry's contention that nursing ethics should focus on autonomy and reform is critically appraised. In opposition, the moral sense of nursing practice is affirmed as the primary focus of nursing ethics. Reform concerns enhancing excellence in nursing within an expanding legitimate authority. The "in-between" situation of nurses is regarded as an excellent position from which to foster communal decisions by teams of health care workers engaged in the moral practice of fostering the well-being of the ill.