http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/502401
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In Practice
My Injury, Your Blood

*Jack Coulehan *Hastings Cent Rep. 2005; 35 (1): 10-11. ©2005 The
Hastings Center

...While the laboratory ensures compliance with the law by refusing to
do an HIV test without the appropriate signed consent form, clinicians
sometimes see no problem with drawing the blood in advance and
requesting consent later....

... In the case of sharps injury, the blood work is drawn to benefit the
injured clinician, not the patient...

...an administrative approach does not address the disparity in gestalt
between the clinicians and professionals who have become acculturated to
a patients' rights perspective. When all is said and done, we have a
better chance of becoming a community that values both perspectives, and
of discovering a more textured way to think about the issue, if instead
of creating a few new forms we create more opportunities for
conversation and reflection. We need to develop a partnership that
respects different visions, yet fosters a practice that better serves
all our patients, including our colleagues who accidentally join their
ranks.