Bioethics is the systematic study of value questions arising in health care and biomedical and behavioral research. The central aims of the project described in this proposal are to provide comprehensive, cross-disciplinary coverage of English-language materials on bioethics and to make timely bibliographic information on those materials available to health professionals, researchers, policy-makers, teachers, students, and interested members of the public. Specifically, the staff of the bioethics information retrieval project has set the following major goals for the time period encompassed by this proposal: (1) to improve the monitoring capabilities of the system through more timely and intensive coverage of bioethics-related news events and legal materials; (2) to produce twelve quarterly updates for the BIOETHICSLINE database distributed by the National Library of Medicine and camera-ready copy for three annual volumes of the Bibliography of Bioethics; (3) to perform and publish a survey of BIOETHICSLINE use in MEDLARS centers around the world; (4) to make bioethics information accessible to a wider circle of users through including the online database in one or more commercial information networks. The bioethics information retrieval system is the only existing resource which seeks to provide comprenhensive coverage of English-language materials, both print and nonprint, on bioethical topics. It complements medically-oriented databases, like MEDLINE, by providing bibliographical information about laws, court decisions, newspaper articles, and a broad spectrum of philosophical and religious literature. At the same time, the bioethics information system helps encourage philosophers, theologians, and lawyers to examine the medical and scientific literature on bioethics by providing ready access to that literature.
