Self-study
Ethicist: Studies have documented the capacity of placebos to reduce pain in patients who believe that they are receiving beneficial drugs. ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███████ █████████ █████████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ █████████ █████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████████ █████████████ ███ ████ ██ █ ███████ ████████ █ ████████ █ ██████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ████ █████████ ███ █████ █████
Summary
The author concludes that administering placebos is ethically questionable.
Why?
Because a doctor might give a placebo only for the purpose of giving the patient satisfaction that something is being done for the patient.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the motive for prescribing a placebo is something that could make the prescription ethically questionable.
13.
The ethicist's argument depends on █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
a
A patient's psychological ████████████ ██ ███ █ █████████████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ██████████
What matters is whether psychological satisfaction SHOULD be a consideration in administering treatment. But whether it currently “is” a consideration is not relevant to the argument. The author’s position is that it might not be an appropriate consideration, regardless of whether doctors in fact consider psychological satisfaction.
b
The motivation for █████████████ █ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████████ ███ █████ ███
Necessary, because if it were not true — if the motivation for administering a placebo CANNOT be relevant to the ethical justification for the placebo — then the premise concerning the potential purpose of the placebo doesn’t provide support to a conclusion about the ethics of the placebo.
c
Medical treatment that ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ █████████ █████████████
Not necessary, because the author’s conclusion is only that administering a placebo is ethically questionable — that doesn’t mean the author thinks it’s indefensible. There are questions raised about it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be defended. Also, the argument doesn’t refer to cases in which treatment relies on the placebo effect “alone.”
d
The pain relief ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ █████████████ █ ████████
Not necessary, because the author’s conclusion is that the placebo is ethically questionable. That doesn’t commit the author to thinking that placebos are justified.
e
Administering a placebo ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █ ███████
Not necessary, because the author’s conclusion is that the placebo is ethically questionable. That doesn’t commit the author to thinking that placebos are definitely unjustified under certain circumstances.