摘要：The research project “Collection and dissemination of bioethical information through an
integrated electronic system”, started in 2001 by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), had among its
objectives, the realization of an integrated system for data collection and exchange of documents related to
bioethics. The system should act as a reference tool for those research activities impacting on citizens’ health
and welfare. This paper aims at presenting some initiatives, developed in the project framework, in order to
establish an Italian documentation network, among which: a) exchange of ISS publications with Italian
institutions active in this field; b) survey through a questionnaire aimed at assessing Italian informative
resources, state-of-the-art and holdings of documentation centres and ethical committees; c) Italian Internet
resources analysis. The results of the survey, together with the analysis of web sites, show that at present in
Italy there are many interesting initiatives for collecting and spreading of documentation in the bioethical
fields, but there is an urgent need for an integration of such resources. Ethical committees generally speaking
need a larger availability of documents, while there are good potentialities for the establishment of an
electronic network for document retrieval and delivery.
