Logical Reasoning

PT102 · S3 · Q12 Carl: Researchers who perform operations

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Carl: Researchers who perform operations on animals for experimental purposes are legally required to complete detailed pain protocols indicating whether the animals will be at risk of pain and, if so, what steps will be taken to minimize or alleviate it.

Debbie's Conclusion (So)

Pain protocols are unnecessary for human beings.

Debbie's Evidence (consider this)

If a doctor wants to schedule surgery for a person, they can simply tell the patient what pain to expect and the patient can decide whether or not to undergo the operation.

Evaluate

Given that ... doctors scheduling surgeries for humans can just inform the patient what pain to expect and get the patient's consent,

How could we still argue that ... pain protocols can sometimes be necessary for humans? (i.e. how could there still be times when medical doctors/researchers would need to fill out a form about what pain would be involved in a procedure and what steps would be taken to minimize the pain?)

Maybe we need to operate on kids or on adults who lack the mental clarity to understand the doctor as they explain what pain to expect.

Maybe we want to do some procedures on unconscious people, so we can't wake them up to get their consent.

Maybe insurance companies or medical researchers would benefit enough from having pain protocols filled out for every operation that it's worth requiring them sometimes.

Goal

We need to think of some situation where a human couldn't just listen to what pain should be expected and consent or decline the surgery, or a situation where even if they can consent, we still want the pain protocol for some other reason.

12.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument made by Debbie in response to Carl’s argument?

  1. Not all operations that are

    Opposite of Goal

    We're looking for a way to argue that pain protocols are sometimes needed for humans. This answer is talking about operations that aren't even painful, so that won't help us.

    4% picked this

  2. Some experimentation that is now

    Unrelated to Goal

    We're looking for a way to argue that pain protocols are sometimes needed for humans. This answer is talking about experimentation done on animals, so that won't help us.

    2% picked this

  3. Preparing pain protocols is not

    Too Weak

    We're looking for a way to argue that pain protocols are sometimes needed for humans. This answer helps us to argue that "if we required them, it wouldn't be a terrible burden". But it's not pointing out any reason we need to require them in some cases.

    6% picked this

  4. Correct

    Some surgical operations performed on

    Why this is right

    We're looking for a way to argue that pain protocols are sometimes needed for humans. If we need to do an operation on an infant, we certainly don't expect the infant to understand the surgeon describing in advance what pain they should expect, and we don't expect the infant to then decide whether to consent to the operation or decline it. Basically, for the sake of this conversation (and for the sake of so many others), infants are essentially the same as "dumb" animals. :)

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    79% picked this

  5. Unalleviated pain after an operation

    Unrelated to Goal

    We're looking for a way to argue that pain protocols are sometimes needed for humans. This answer is talking about trying to reduce the pain that follows a surgery. That's beyond the scope of what we're talking about. A pain protocol is only about the pain involved in the operation itself.

    9% picked this

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