Ethics in the laboratory examination of patients

Various value problems are connected with the clinical examination of patie nts. The purpose of this literature review is to clarify: 1) in which patie nt examinations ethical problems are generally found; 2) what kind of ethic al problems are found in he different phases of the examination process, an d 3) what kind of ethical problems are found in connection with the use of examination results. Genetic testing, autopsy, prenatal and HIV examination s were ethically the most problematic laboratory examinations, The most pro blematic phase in the laboratory examination process proved to be the pre-a nalytic phase. At present the results of laboratory examination are used mo re and more often for the prediction of diseases. The problems appear when the examination results are used for discrimination and stigmatisation. Bec ause of the lack of empirical ethical research, it is important to chart em pirical knowledge about present value conflict situations involved in the l aboratory examination process.