Logical Reasoning

PT134 · S2 · Q8 Journalist: To reconcile the need

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Journalist: To reconcile the need for profits sufficient to support new drug research with the moral imperative to provide medicines to those who most need them but cannot afford them, some pharmaceutical companies feel justified in selling a drug in rich nations at one price and in poor nations at a much lower price.

Evidence

A nation with a low average income may still have a substantial middle class better able to pay for new drugs than are many of the poorer citizens of an overall wealthier nation.

Conclusion

The practice of selling a drug in rich nations at one price and in poor nations at a much lower price is unjustified.

Evaluate

The argument assumes that it is more important to consider the ability of an individual to pay for a drug than the ability of the average citizen within a country to pay.

8.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the journalist's reasoning?

  1. People who are ill deserve

    Weaken

    This undermines the argument’s assertion that one’s ability to pay should determine the price one pays.

    2% picked this

  2. Wealthy institutions have an obligation

    Out of Scope

    The argument does not indicate whether pharmaceutical companies are wealthy institutions.

    2% picked this

  3. Correct

    Whether one deserves special consideration

    Why this is right

    This addresses the right comparison to support the argument. This suggests that it is not where one lives that should determine the price one pays, but rather one’s ability to pay that determines the price one pays.

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

    87% picked this

  4. The people in wealthy nations

    Irrelevant Comparison

    The argument does not address whether wealthy nations have better access to health care than poor nations, but instead discusses charging a different price for a medicine based on whether one lives in a wealthy nation or a poor one.

    3% picked this

  5. Unequal access to health care

    Irrelevant Comparison

    An unequal distribution of wealth is not judged to be fair or unfair in the argument.

    6% picked this

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