Physician: In order to investigate

Answer choices

1. A

   Unrelated to Goal2% picked this

   The resources expended on the HGH study could be spent instead on research likely to lead to treatments for medical conditions more serious

   This answer isn't telling us either of the two things we're looking for (unlikely to reveal helpful stuff about medical condition / unknown whether poses only minimal risk). This answer would strengthen the idea of "Let's not do this proposed study; let's spend money on something else instead", but it has no strengthening effect on the idea of "This proposed study should be prohibited." There's a big difference between saying "You shouldn't waste your money on that" and "You're not allowed to spend your money on that".

   2%
2. B

   Opposite4% picked this

   About 10,000 children have already been given synthetic HGH without obvious

   One of the two things we're looking for that would justify this conclusion is that "it's unknown whether this treatment poses only minimal risk". This answer goes in the opposite direction, giving us a robust sample of children who are experiencing minimal risk. This answer would strengthen the idea of "Let's not do this proposed study; let's spend money on something else instead", but it has no strengthening effect on the idea of "This proposed study should be prohibited." There's a big difference between saying "You shouldn't waste your money on that" and "You're not allowed to spend your money on that".

   4%
3. C

   Unrelated to Goal2% picked this

   Obtaining informed consent from children is impossible, because they are not yet mature enough to

   "Consent" is out of scope. We can't invent our own rule of "If the subject can't give consent, then the research should be prohibited". We need an answer to trigger the provided rule: unlikely to reveal helpful stuff about medical condition or unknown whether poses only minimal risk

   2%
4. D

   Too Weak22% picked this

   Although hormonal imbalances can cause disease, the imbalances themselves do not constitute

   This almost establishes that "doing this research is unlikely to reveal important information about a medical condition", but not quite. We don't have to believe that the only medical condition we could learn about by giving HGH to kids is the 'hormonal imbalances' (which, this answer tells us, not a medical condition). It could be that the hormonal imbalances these kids have don't necessarily come from the same underlying root condition. Maybe giving them synthetic HGH while taking into account other differences we know about them would reveal important information. Perhaps one of them has low HGH because of a certain auto-immune disease, and when we give that kid HGH the kids' fevers and body aches disappear. That would be important information about that auto-immune disease. So the fact that hormonal imbalances aren't themselves a medical condition doesn't quite establish that doing this research is unlikely to give us some important info about something that is a medical condition.

   22%
5. E

   Correct70% picked this

   The long-term effects of synthetic HGH have never been tested and

   Why this is right

   This establishes the 2nd of the two things we were hunting for. unlikely to reveal helpful stuff about medical condition or unknown whether poses only minimal risk Since we had a rule that said "medical research is permitted only if it's known to pose a minimal risk", then saying "the long-term effects of this medical research have never been tested and are unknown" would violate that necessary requirement. Hence, the author would be right to say the study should be prohibited.

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

   70%