Evaluation of Scholarly Sources

The internet is a powerful thing; with it, professionals on any topic can publish their work for anybody and everybody to read.  Looking once again at the ethical debate over the genetic modification of embryos, we are going to analyze two more sources, this time scholarly.

Holley, Michael. "Science 1883 Cover" 05/31/1883
via Wikimedia. Public Domain License 

Source 1:

Rebecca Dresser’s “GeneticModification of Preimplantation Embryo’s: Toward Adequate Human Research Policies” was written to inform people (most likely those with authority in biomedicine) about the dangers associated with this genetic modification.  She hopes that with the proper information, those with control over the issue will make the right decision about the ethical implications of genetically modifying embryos.

Dresser received her Juris Doctor at Harvard University.  She now works at Washington University Law as a Professor of Law as well as a Professor of Ethics in Medicine.  Her article was published by Wiley on behalf of Milbank Memorial Fund and appeared in The Milbank Quarterly.  It is now accessible on JSTOR. 

In the article, Dresser references nationally recognized organizations such as the National Institutes of Health.  The information cited is from the late 1990s and early 2000s, which would have been very current information for when she wrote the article in 2004.

Source 2:

“The Ethics of BiotechnologicalInterventions into Human Genome: Arguments of High Risk and Destroying HumanNature” addresses the risks involved in the genetic modification of embryos and how these risks could affect generations to come.  It aims to have the biomedical community reconsider the effects of their technology.

The article was written by Peter Sykora, a professor at Masaryk University with his PhD. From Comenius University.  This article was published in 2015 by Klemensova Filozofia in Filozofia, and can now be found on Web of Science.

Sykora cites many current scholarly articles and books that deal with the same ethical implications of science and technology.  He gears his information toward people who already have knowledge on how embryos are being genetically modified and informs them now of the ethical considerations that have to be made.