Self-study
Some people claim that the reason herbs are not prescribed as drugs by licensed physicians is that the medical effectiveness of herbs is seriously in doubt. ██ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████████ ████████ ███ █ █████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ █████████ █████ ██████████ ███ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ██████
Summary
The author concludes that under the current system, licensed physicians cannot recommend the medicinal use of herbs.
Why?
Because in order for a drug to be offered for sale, it must have regulatory-agency approval for medicinal use in specific illnesses/conditions.
Getting regulatory-agency approval for a drug is so expensive that one must be the holder of a patent to recover the cost of getting the approval.
Herbs and their medicinal uses cannot be patented.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes if one cannot recover the cost of getting regulatory-agency approval for a drug, then the drug won’t get regulatory-agency approval. (This overlooks the possibility that someone or some group might still get regulatory-approval despite the inability to recover the cost.)
The author also assumes that if a drug can’t be offered for sale, then licensed physicians cannot recommend its use. (This overlooks the possibility that licensed physicians could still recommend illegal drugs.)
11.
The argument depends on the ██████████ ████
a
the medical ineffectiveness ██ ████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████████
Not necessary, because the author’s reasoning is based on the cost of getting regulatory-agency approval. The author doesn’t rely on purported ineffectiveness of herbs as part of the support for her conclusion.
b
the only time █ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ █ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █ ████ ██ █ ████████ █████████
Not necessary, because the argument is directed toward proving that licensed physicians can’t recommend herbs as medicine. But whether people can properly use a drug is not at issue; the author never argues that it’s improper for people to use unprescribed drugs. What matters is what licensed physician can or cannot do, not takers of drugs.
c
a licensed physician ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █ ████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if a licensed physician CAN recommend the medicinal use of an herb even if it’s not offered for sale as a drug — then the premises no longer give us a reason to think licensed physicians can’t recommend herbs as medicine. Sure, the premises may establish that the herbs can’t be offered for sale; but doctors might still be allowed to recommend illegal herbs. So the author must assume this possibility isn’t true.
d
some other substances, ███████ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ███████████ █████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████
Not necessary, because the argument is concerned with proving that herbs can’t be recommended by doctors. But the author does not try to prove anything about substances besides herbs.
e
the cost of ███████ ████ █████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ █████████████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ █████ ██ █████
Not necessary, because the author never describes the cause of the high expense for regulatory approval. We don’t know if it has anything to do with the time it takes to get approval.