Self-study
The present goal of the field of medicine seems to be to extend life indefinitely. █████████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ████████████ █████ ████ ███ █ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████████████ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ███████████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████
Summary
The author concludes that as organ transplants allow people to live longer, people with degenerative brain disorders will from a larger proportion of the population.
Why?
Because we can never do brain transplants.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that if we can’t do brain transplants, we can’t cure or eliminate degenerative brain disorders. This overlooks the possibility that we might be able to cure degenerative brain disorders through some means besides transplants, such that eventually we might have a smaller proportion of people with brain disorders (maybe we can totally eliminate it, too).
11.
The argument above is based ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
a
Degenerative brain disorders ████ ████████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ █████████
Not necessary, because even if there’s no change in the age category of people struck by degenerative brain disorders, over time, as people live longer and longer, we might expect people with brain disorders to make up a larger proportion of people. The author’s reasoning is not that brain disorders strike younger people, but that more and more people will survive long enough to eventually have a degenerative brain disorder.
b
It is still █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████
Not necessary, because whatever is true about the current frequency of transplants or need for transplants is not relevant. The argument concerns what will happen in the future, as transplantations become more common and allows more and more people to live longer.
c
There are degenerative █████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ███████ █████ ████████████
Necessary, because if this were not true — if there are NO degenerative brain disorders that will not be curable without brain transplants (in other words, if every deg. brain disorder is curable without brain transplant) — then the fact we can’t do brain transplants does not prove that more and more people will have degenerative brain disorders in the future. Even if we can’t do transplants, we might still be able to cure degenerative brain disorders. The author must assume this isn’t possible.
d
Degenerative brain disorders ███████ ███ █ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████
Not necessary, because whatever is true about the current state of degenerative brain disorders and deaths is irrelevant. The argument concerns what will happen in the future, as transplantations become more common and allows more and more people to live longer.
e
More is being █████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████████ █████ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████████████
Not necessary, because the amount spent on research is irrelevant. Nothing in the argument cited to or relied on comparative amounts of research spending.