About the Series

To promote research in the interdisciplinary field of bioethics, the Bioethics Research Library produced a series of 47 Scope Notes — annotated bibliographies with introductory essays — to provide a range of opinions on bioethical issues. They were not designed as a comprehensive review, but rather offered immediate reference to facts, opinion, and legal precedents (if applicable) for scholars, journalists, medical and legal practitioners, students, and other interested persons.

The Bioethics Scope Notes are available to individual researchers on the Bioethics Research Library website and at the Georgetown University Institutional Repository. Any redistribution or commercial use of these copyrighted works requires written permission of the Bioethics Research Library. Please note that, as of Scope Note 15, the series also appeared in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal.

While the Scope Notes Archive is intended to provide a historical look at issues in Bioethics as they emerged, Scope Notes 17, 22, 24, and 28 were later updated in July 2011 as part of the Bioethics Research Library’s National Information Resource on Ethics and Human Genetics preservation project.