Self-study
Philosopher: Effective tests have recently been developed to predict fatal diseases having a largely genetic basis. ████ ███ ███ █████ █████ █ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ████████████████ ███████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ █ ███████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ████████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ████
Summary
The philosopher says that we can now effectively test people for some genetically-based deadly diseases, so we can warn people in advance if they’re at risk. Unfortunately, we can’t prevent most of these conditions yet. What’s more, learning that you will get a deadly and unpreventable disease can be psychologically harmful. So, the philosopher wonders whether we should use these tests at all.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The philosopher’s claims support these principles:
Having more knowledge of one’s future health risks is not always beneficial for health.
If new medical tests risk causing people harm while not offering the possibility of a cure, it may be best not to conduct the tests.
Developments in medicine can lead to questions of how and when they should be used.
3.
Which one of the following ██████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████████
a
The advance of ████████ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████
This is not supported. While this claim is factually true, it’s not the focus of the philosopher’s claims. The philosopher is trying to indicate a question raised by medical advancement, not make the point that medicine can’t solve all problems.
b
The advance of ████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████
This is strongly supported. The philosopher discusses new testing to raise the question of whether or not the new tests should be offered at all. In other words, whether or not to offer the tests is an ethical dilemma that arises due to an advance in medicine.
c
Medical technologies continue ██ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ████████
This is not supported. The point of the philosopher’s claims isn’t to show that medical technology is advancing over a sustained period of time, the point is about new questions that are arising in medicine.
d
The more we ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █████
This is not supported. The philosopher doesn’t indicate anything about realizing how little we know, and there’s no part of the stimulus that suggests a gap in our knowledge being revealed.
e
The advance of ██████████ ██ ██ ████████████ ██████
This is not supported. The philosopher doesn’t bring into question the value of technology in general, or even the value of this new kind of testing. Just saying that we maybe shouldn’t use a technology for now doesn’t mean it’s without value.