Evaluation of General Sources

For my post-mortem controversy I have chosen to investigate the "brain death" of Jahi McMath and the following court case the ensued.

SOURCES

Source #1: A blog entry/article from Colombia Law School.
"The Death Exemption: Jahi McMath & the Right to Life After Death" 

UCSF Brand Identity, "UCSF Medical Center Logo"
10-13-14 via WikiMedia Commons, Public Domain 

-URL-
The URL for this source is defined as a top-level domain for education (.edu). Websites that end in .edu are sites that pertain to education as opposed a commercial site (.com). This implies that the site is used for educational purposes rather than for advertisements or gossip. In addition to URL the credibility of this source is also upheld by the University that is behind it. Colombia Law School is considered a very prestigious and highly ranked law school, therefore, improving the credibility of the URL.

-Author-
The Author or the blog entry is Elizabeth Reiner Platt. Her official title is the Associate Director of the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Colombia Law School. As for education, she graduated from New York University Law School. Platt has also worked for a number of social projects such as Urban Justice Sex Workers Project, New York Civil Liberties, as well as Brennan Center for Justice.

-Last Updated-
The blog entry does not provide information about when it was last updated, however the post was published on January 5th, 2016. I would say that this is a fairly recent source granted that the entire situation started in 2013. The blog entry contains a link to a CBS News article regarding the McMath legal battle as well as a link to a court document.

-Purpose-
The purpose of the text is to inform the reader on the abnormal case of Jahi McMath. In comparison to other articles written on her case I would say that this blog entry helps to make sense of the legal mumbo-jumbo.

-Graphics-
The only graphic that is illustrated in the blog is a photograph of the McMath family sporting a "Pray for Jahi" t-shirt. The photo represents the family's support as well as adds a religious element.

-Postion on Subject-
Platt is attempting to provide the information regarding Jahi McMath in an unbiased manner, however, her argument mainly focuses on the fact that the McMath family doesn't really have a court case. The blog is an online source that anyone with Internet has access to so I wouldn't say a specific set of viewers profits if they believe this information to be true because at the end of the day the court is the deciding factor. I can verify Platt's argument to some extent with the actual court documents and official ruling.

-Links-
Platt does not provide any suggestions for further inquiry. The only links/citations that she provides are the link to the CBS article and the court document. Otherwise the rest of the information was based on her own dissection of the case.

Source #2: PDF files of all the court documents regarding the Jahi McMath case.
"McMath-A Dispute Over Brain Death"

-URL-
The URL for this source is .com, which may not seem as credible as .edu or .gov, but the  main credibility of this source comes from the fact that the website is just a means to organize all of the court information for McMath's case.

-Author-
Thaddeus Mason Pope is the "author" of the information, but he is more of just a publisher. He is a notable professor that has worked at a series of Universities in the Midwest of the United States. Pope also has held a series of chair positions such as a position in the Association of American Law Schools Section on Law, Medicine, and Health Care. I verified this information by looking up the alleged qualifications and cross-checking them with the University's of Association's online records.

-Last Updated-
Pope updates the website whenever court documents are made available to the public. The most recent update to the site was on January 27th, 2016 when the documents regarding the Winkfield Opposition to Certification Request was made public. There are no links provided on the site.

U.S. Government, "US DC NorCal"
04-30-10 via WikiMedia Commons
Public Domain

-Purpose-
The purpose of this site/source is to provide the raw data of the court case to the public. It is simply informational, since Pope does not provide any other text.

-Graphics-
There are no graphics included because the source is supposed to be strictly informational. If graphics were added to the site then it would become biased in one way or another. Therefore, Pope has refrained from including any on the website.

-Position on Subject-
The source refrains from bias by only providing PDF files of the court documents. The information comes straight from the court stenographer. I can verify the documents by looking up the documents on the court's website.

-Links-
The source does not offer any avenues for further inquiry. If other readings or research links were included that would counter the entire point of the source. As for connections to recognized authorities the PDF files contain the names of the plaintiffs, defendants, and judge.