Health Sciences Library Guides: Topic: Ethics in Biomedicine: Home

Introduction

Welcome to the Ethics in Biomedicine guide. Here you will find resources related to the role of ethics in research and healthcare, as well as Islamic bioethics.

Ethical considerations in biomedicine and research attempt to address what is fair and responsible practice in the conduct of research. As such, it addresses a wide range of attitudes and activities related to research, including:

Scientific objectivity in research
Protection of human and animal subjects
Standards of patient care
Confidentiality and sharing of data
Publishing of research results
The role of patients in decision-making
Interactions with students and colleagues

It is impossible to cover all of these topics in a single guide, but the collection here will help you begin learning about ethics in biomedicine and get you started with finding more resources.

General Bioethics Resources

Books

Handbook of Global Bioethics by Henk A. M. J. ten Have (Editor); Bert Gordijn (Editor)
Call Number: Online
ISBN: 9789400725126
Publication Date: 2013-09-13
This book "presents state-of-the-art information and analysis concerning the state of affairs in bioethics in around 40 countries. The country reports point out the most important discussions as well as the emerging topics in the field. Readers can orientate themselves quickly, with regard to the various relevant issues, institutional structures and expertise available in these countries. The authorship of this reference work is truly global as it involves contributions from the best authors with innate knowledge of the bioethics situation in these countries."

Databases

Academic search premier This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary database that indexes a wide range of scholarly and popular materials on most topics. Academic search premier makes a good starting place when you're beginning to explore a topic in bioethics.
BELIT This link opens in a new window
The Bioethics Literature Database (BELIT) is a bibliographic directory of literature in the area of bioethics. It provides integrated access to records from the German Reference Centre for Ethics in the Life Sciences (DRZE, Bonn), the Interdepartmental Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW, Tuebingen), the Library and Information Services of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics (KIE, Washington, DC), and the Centre de documentation en éthique des sciences de la vie et de la santé, INSERM/CCNE (CDEI, Paris).
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
This database includes citations from law journals, yearbooks, institutes, university publications, law. While primarily focusing on law and legal publications, it can be a useful source of materials on islamic, medical, or research ethics, and their related regulations.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is a fully-searchable database containing the back issues of several hundred scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, music, ecology and botany, business, and other fields. It contains over 300,000 items on research, medical, biomedical, or islamic ethics.
ProQuest Research library This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Research Library provides online access to an extensive collection of full-text articles from journals and other sources across a wide range of subject areas, including business, education, literature, political science, and psychology.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed indexes nearly 32 million citations (2021 baseline count), focused on the biomedical literature. While clinically-oriented, it is a useful source for publications addressing all aspects of biomedical ethics.

Other Resources

Bioethics Observatory
Produced by the Catholic University of Valencia in Spain, this website "includes 'Special reports' and 'News' based on the latest biomedical and biotechnological research findings from the world’s top medical and scientific journals, such as the biological and anthropological status of the human embryo, matters regarding the end of life, especially euthanasia, assisted suicide and palliative care, and also some of the issues that are currently giving rise to major debates, including assisted reproduction, surrogacy, use of contraceptives and the morning-after pill, transsexuality, genome editing, synthetic biology, production of human-animal chimeras for medical purposes and transhumanism."
The Hastings Center: What is Bioethics?
Founded in 1969, the Hastings Center is one of the foremost bioethics research institutes in the world. It publishes: numerous reports: two journals, including the Hastings Center Report; and the Hastings Bioethics Forum - a freely available blog.
Video: Introduction to Bioethics
A collection of six recorded TED-style presentations from Dr Maggie Little at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Presentations cover topic from bioethics in the patient interview to international bioethics.
Kennedy Institute of Ethics
Established as part of Georgetown University near Washington, DC, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics is a research institute and bioethics research library. It also publishes the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal.
Resources for Research Ethics Education
"The purpose of this site is to provide resources and tools for teachers of research ethics. The goal is to promote best practices and evidence-based research ethics education." RREE includes resources on a great range of research ethics-related subjects plus materials useful for teaching, such as case studies, notes on role-playing, etc.
Qatar National Library
QNL provides residents of Qatar with free access to a variety of online resources that fall outside the scope of a medical library.
These include:
Arts, e.g. International Index to the Performing Arts
Business, e.g. ABI/Inform Complete, Hoover’s Company Profiles
Islamic studies, e.g. Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, Index Islamicus
Humanities, e.g. Arts and Humanities Full Text
Military, e.g. Military Information in PQ Central
Interdisciplinary topics, e.g. CREDO, Periodicals Index Online, SIRS Researcher
UNESCO Bioethics
The leading United Nations agency in bioethics, UNESCO works to coordinate national bioethics committees, establish a bioethics teaching curriculum, and promote the teaching of bioethics internationally.