LSAT 118 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q14

LR Question 14 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Physician: In order to investigate diseases caused by …

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: The proposed HGH study should be prohibited.

REASONING: Medical research should only be allowed if it is:

1. Likely to reveal important information about a medical condition

AND

1. Known to pose minimal risk to the subjects

ANALYSIS: This is a pretty straightforward question, but the stimulus involves a lot of fluff. You can generally ignore most of the background info on HGH.

The important part is that we’re given a rule for when medical research should be allowed. It has to satisfy those 2 conditions.

The conclusion is that this HGH study shouldn’t be allowed.

If we want to strengthen that, we need to show that it fails to meet one or both of those conditions.

So, an answer has to tell us one or multiple of the following:

1. The study is NOT likely to reveal important info about a condition
2. The study poses more than a minimal risk to the subjects OR we don’t know the risks.

On the second condition, notice that it says “known to pose minimal risk.” So if the risks are unknown, it fails the second condition.

___________

1. The rule says nothing about allocating resources to the most serious diseases. That’s a new condition this answer introduces.
2. If 10,000 children have already received synthetic HGH without obvious side effects, that makes the study look safer. So this might help us determine that the study meets the second condition (minimal risk). This doesn’t give us a reason to conclude that the study should be prohibited.
3. Tempting because the subjects are children. But the physician’s rule never mentions consent. Like A, this introduces a new condition.
4. The physician says the study investigates diseases caused by hormonal imbalances. Even if hormonal imbalances themselves are not medical conditions, the diseases they cause certainly could be. This doesn’t undermine either requirement.
5. CORRECT. If the long-term effects of synthetic HGH are unknown, then it is not known that the study poses only minimal risk. This means that the study fails the second condition for approval, so it should be prohibited.