In response to high mortality in area hospitals, surgery was restricted to emergency procedures during a five-week period. █████████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ █████████████ █████ ██ ███ █████
The argument concludes that area hospitals had conducted an unnecessary amount of risk-bearing elective surgery, i.e. non-emergency surgery which could be postponed. How do we know? Because during five weeks when elective surgeries were paused, the hospitals experienced significantly reduced mortality.
Looking closely, we can see that the argument makes a jump between its premises and its conclusion. The premises seem to show that elective surgery has risks. But they don't quite establish that it's unnecessary to incur these risks—in other words, that elective surgery is unnecessary.
This gives us two strategies to weaken. First, we can undermine the idea of "unnecessary" elective surgery by showing that the elective surgeries were necessary in some way. Second, we can undermine the idea that elective surgery is risky by providing an alternative explanation for the change in mortality. The correct answer could use either approach.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██████
The conditions for █████ ████████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████ █████████████████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ █████
(A) tells us that it was in fact necessary to perform these elective surgeries. They may have been elective in the sense that
(A) doesn't weaken the idea that elective surgeries have risks. But it does weaken the conclusion that these risks were incurred unnecessarily, by giving a compelling reason why the surgeries were needed.
The physicians planning ████████ ███████ █████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████
So the risks undertaken were informed risks—but that doesn't weaken the argument. (B) doesn't give us a good reason why those risks were necessary, nor does it decrease the level of risk associated with elective surgery.
Before the suspension ██ ████████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████
(C) is fully consistent with the conclusion that the area was performing an unnecessary amount of elective surgery. That lines up with area hospitals performing more surgery than usual. This isn't quite enough to strengthen, but it doesn't weaken either.
(C) could be correct if it explained that area hospitals were too overloaded for unnecessary surgeries. But as it is, (C) doesn't show us that the elective surgeries performed were actually necessary.
Elective surgery is, ██ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ███████
(D) attempts to undermine the risk level of elective surgeries, but it doesn't do enough. This still doesn't explain the decrease in mortality when elective surgeries were paused, so it still seems there's some risk associated with elective surgery. And that's all the conclusion needs.
(D) could be correct if the conclusion said that elective surgery was unusually risky, or something similar. But since the conclusion is that the risk (even a low risk) of elective surgery happens unnecessarily often, (D) doesn't weaken.
Even if a ████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ██ █ ███████████████████ █████████ ████ █ █████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████
(E) explains one way that a surgery can be risky, which doesn't weaken the argument. This doesn't do anything to undermine the idea that elective surgery is risky—if anything, it confirms that point. And (E) also doesn't show that these risks are necessary, just that they exist.