Self-study
Physician: In order to investigate diseases caused by hormonal imbalances, a certain researcher wants to study, among others, 200 children whose pituitary glands fail to produce typical amounts of Human Growth Hormone (HGH). ███ █████ █████ ███████ █████████████ █ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ████ █ ████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███████████ █████ █ ███████ █████████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ████████████ ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████████
Summary
According to the physician, a proposed study investigating hormone imbalances should be prohibited. This is based on two necessary conditions the physician presents for permitting medical research: 1) it will likely reveal important information and 2) it is known to pose a minimal risk for participants.
Notable Assumptions
The physician presents a rule containing two necessary conditions for permitting medical research. However, we don’t know anything about the proposed study that would trigger the rule (i.e. breach a condition) and thus support the conclusion that the study should be prohibited.
So, we need to affirm that either 1) the study will not likely reveal important information, or 2) it is not known to pose a minimal risk.
14.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██████████████
a
The resources expended ██ ███ ███ █████ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ███████████
This doesn’t trigger the physician’s rule because it doesn’t breach either of the necessary conditions presented. It’s only necessary that a study be likely to reveal important information, not the most important information.
b
About 10,000 children ████ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ████████
This doesn’t trigger the physician’s rule. If anything, it affirms that at least one of the necessary conditions—that giving synthetic HGH to children is known to be minimally risky—would actually be met.
c
Obtaining informed consent ████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ███████
This doesn’t trigger the rule in the physician’s argument. Informed consent doesn’t play any role in why the physician thinks the study should be prohibited.
d
Although hormonal imbalances ███ █████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █ ███████ ██████████
This doesn’t trigger the physician’s rule. It’s entirely possible that a study on hormone imbalances could reveal important information about related medical conditions, so this doesn’t breach a necessary condition.
e
The long-term effects ██ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████
In other words, we don’t know the risks of the study, which would breach the necessary condition that the study be known to pose only a minimal risk. This triggers the physician’s rule and bridges to the conclusion that the study should be prohibited.