Pre-employment medical examination of migrant workers--the ethical and legal issues.

As phYSiCians, we inherently need to practice within certain norms. Methods of practice and tools physicians use may raise ethical, legal and jurisprudential queries. We need to recognise the difference between approaching a patient with the noble intent to diagnose and treat and pre-employment medical examination. In the former, physicians practice priori viz. a systematic approach of complete history, physical and laboratory examinations to clinch a diagnosis. In the latter, it is a physician's role to tailor the approach specifically to assess fitness to do a particular job, ensuring before employment that the worker has no serious diseases•