On tiptoe

On July 20, 2011, Jenna Royal wrote, quoting, but I no longer know where the quote came from: "Are there parts that might offend someone? Did you tiptoe around those aspects of the story even without realizing it?"
    How do you handle this situation? It's something I worry about often enough. The story might need the element, but is it worth the risk of offending someone?
And along similar lines, welliewalks wrote, My question has something to do with Jenna R's. Most of my characters...