PT5.S1.Q18 - Mary, a veterinary student, has been assigned

Lexicon2

Anyone have an idea as to why the correct answer is B or how to approach this question in general? The only reason I can think of is that it specifies "immediately" which aligns with the stimulus. However, I don't understand why D is incorrect as it also seems applicable given the stimulus.

blomqsa26-1

Hi! D is incorrect because Mary isn't a practicing veterinarian. As we learn in the first sentence, she is still a veterinary student, so this principle wouldn't apply to her.

In regards to how to approach it, we are trying to determine which principle would validate Mary's decision not to perform the experiment. I just start by eliminating what I know isn't correct:
A - Incorrect. We learn that the dog is under anesthesia, so we don't necessarily know that the dog would feel pain.
C - Incorrect. It could be that what Mary learns from her experiment actually does prevent future animal suffering, so this answer choice could actually could invalidate her decision (the opposite of what we want to do here).
D - Incorrect. Mary isn't a practicing veterinarian.
E - Incorrect. Mary wouldn't be acting with the sole intention of hurting/killing the dog, but rather to learn about shock.

Via process of elimination, my answer is B. B is correct because of what you noted. Mary's experiment isn't "immediately" saving several animal lives or a person. We also have to recognize that B is a conditional statement:

Taking life justified --> several animal lives/person's health protected.

Contrapositive: "several animal lives/person's health NOT protected --> taking life NOT justified." This justifies Mary's decision. She wasn't saving animal lives or protecting a person's health, so the experiment, which would kill the dog, wasn't justified.