[Histological view of ethics in medicine and handling of residual samples in clinical laboratories].

One of the important ethical issues in clinical laboratory medicine is whether organs and/or specimens should belong to the examinees. Tracing back to ancient Greece, an episode of the death of Asklepios, killed by Zeus to revive the dead, and the great contribution of Hippocrates to medicine including the vow and ethics of medicine, have been described. In the relationship between doctors and patients, the former had been superior to the latter for more than 2400 years, however, the situation has been changing from that to the same position since 1960th, along with the development of bioethics from medical ethics. For the promotion of bioethics, world medical associations have contributed declarations and continuous discussion. The declarations are based on the avoidance of actions detrimental to the life, health, privacy or dignity of examinees. On the medical use of human organs and specimens in relation to human rights, the mind and the body, discussion has continued, however, a consensus on the details has not been reached. A view on the use of residual samples for methodological study, teaching and research in the clinical laboratory was proposed by the Japanese Society of Laboratory Medicine in 2002. Briefly, it included confidentiality of the laboratory staff, responsibility of the laboratory director, the absence of a necessity to obtain consent for the use of residual samples for methodological study when they are made anonymous or pooled, and the recommendation to obtain a judgement by an ethics committee for research use. The background and discussion for the proposal and the current situation on how to obtain consent from patients in Japan are mentioned.