Right not to Know the Investigation Result
Viroj Wiwanitkit MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
Patient’s right is the basic principle in medical ethics. The patient’s right relating to the laboratory result is the basic knowledge for all practitioners. Basically, the two important rights(1-4) include 1. Right to get information before investigation and to know the result. 2. Right to have the result kept confidential. In addition to these two main rights, there is another investigating right, right not to know the result. This right is not properly disclosed to the public. Basically, the main of laboratory investigation is to get the result to help diagnosis or treatment. The result of the investigation is the secret of the patient. The physician in charge can know because of the patient’s trust. However, the patient who is the source of the data and secret has a complete right to know the result (5). In some cases, the patient might not desire to know the result but allow the physician to investigate. This is the origin of “right not to know the investigation result.” This right can be seen in investigation that has high social and psychological impact such as anti HIV test(6-7). Therefore, it is necessary that the general practitioner should not only give information and ask for information before the investigation but also if the patient would like to know the investigation result or not. In case that the patient says no, the physician in charge has to keep the result as a special secret.
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