The use of principles in allocating scarce health care resources for genetic tests.

Given limited health care resources also for genetic tests, it needs to be considered how we can meet health needs fairly if we cannot meet them all. Frequently, health care decision making involves the explicit or implicit use of principles. The four basic principles for ethical decision making autonomy, non-maleficience, beneficience and justice provide an example of an elaborated bioethical framework by Beauchamp and Childress. The qualitative use of such principles for allocating health resources within genetic testing is a fruitful starting point, but it should be complemented by health economic techniques and procedural fairness in a pragmatic manner