Bioethics Thesaurus

The Thesaurus Ethics in the Life Sciences

With the purpose of recording the European scientific vocabulary on bioethics for the first time the Thesaurus Ethics in the Life Sciences was developed as a consistent and controlled indexing and research tool in several languages. The formation of subject headings (descriptors) involved the modeling on international standards and the creation of a linking system with other thesauri.

Especially with regard to publications in medical ethics the interoperability of the Thesaurus Ethics in the Life Sciences with the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the National Library of Medicine (USA) is of importance. The publications listed in the bibliographical database ETHMED of the Information and Documentation Centre on Ethics in Medicine (IDEM) are linked with the Thesaurus Ethics in the Life Sciences via their subject headings. Also, ETHMED allows for a simultaneous search by subject headings in both literature database systems, provided that the database MEDLINE is involved (e.g. over the portal 'Medpilot' of the German National Library of Medicine, Köln).

The following institutes are cooperating with IDEM in the development Thesaurus Ethics in the Life Sciences:

• Deutsches Referenzzentrum für Ethik in den Biowissenschaften (DRZE), Bonn, Deutschland (editor in chief)

• Centre de documentation en éthique des sciences de la vie et de la santé, INSERM/CCE, Paris, Frankreich

• Interfakultäres Zentrum für Ethik in den Wissenschaften (IZEW), Universität Tübingen, Deutschland

• Library and Information Services, Kennedy Institute of Ethics (KIE), Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA