Evaluating online sources

Evaluating Online Sources Evaluating Online Sources Sorting out information while conducting a research can be extremely daunting. This is attributed to the fact that there are several sites that give irrelevant and unreliable information that can jeopardize one’s research. While conducting a research on the use of animals in medical testing, I came across Katrina Bramstedt’s article, ‘ Using animals in medical research.’ Katrina is a PhD holder from Monash University and a bioethicist working at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She once worked as a medical device engineer majoring in cardiac implants. Her credential speaks for itself and this makes her article useful and reliable. Furthermore, being a scholar, she must have written the article after conducting several studies and observations. Katrina article is published in the Dialogue Journal, an international journal of thought, faith and action. It is a non-profit organization aimed at nurturing intelligent, deepening reader’s commitment to Jesus Christ and the Bible, as well as articulating biblical responses to the contemporary issues in humanities, philosophy, arts, and sciences.
In her article, Katrina strives to explain whether the benefit human beings obtain from animal usage in medical research justifies the act. Additionally, she aims at pointing at the biblical support for using animals in medical research. She asserts that Jewish teachings claim that animals were created to serve the interests of human beings; thus, their use as companions, food, and for labor (Katrina, n. d). Animals were to serve humans so long as they were treated in a manner that they were not subjected to pain and suffering. Therefore, Katrina supports the use of animals in medical research so long as they were handled with care and not subjected to pain. Katrina also claims that human beings are superior to animals; thus, their interests should be served first. This implies that animals should be used for goals that improve the conditions of human beings. Since medical research aims at improving the health standards of human beings, Katrina argues that animal research is justified.
As much as she gives reasons that support animal usage in medical research, Katrina also points out that the animals should be handled in a manner that reduces unnecessary stress (Katrina, n. d). She reinforces that animals should be used in research that they are needed and that the research personnel conducting the test should be well trained on research principles and ethics that concern animal welfare (Katrina, n. d). In this way, using animals in research would be beneficial to human beings, and at the same time the animals would be saved from unnecessary pain and suffering. Katrina’s article aims at promoting the use of animals in medical research. This is seen clearly in the manner in which she has explicated the biblical scriptures that support the act.
In conclusion, Katrina’s article can be considered a reliable source because of various reasons. First, she included a list of resources to back up her claims. This shows that before coming up with her article, she had conducted a thorough research on the subject; thus, her article comprised of facts and truth. Secondly, being a scholar, chances are high that Katrina could have written the article based on findings from studies she conducted as she pursued her education. Thus, the article could be based on unfounded facts and rumors. Lastly, the link to the article is active, and this shows that the article can be accessed by anyone at any time if there is a need.
References
Katrina, Bramstedt. (n. d). “ Using animals in medical research.” Dialogue. Accessed 4 Nov. 2012
from http://dialogue. adventist. org/articles/15_2_bramstedt_e. htm