LSAT 150 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Lawyer: In a risky surgical procedure that is performed only…

QUESTION TYPE: Principle – Justify

CONCLUSION: If the patient dies, the doctors will have committed manslaughter.

REASONING: In a risky procedure, the doctor’s will stop a patient’s heart and brain.

ANALYSIS: On principle justify questions, you simply have to connect the facts with the moral conclusion. Here, we have a fact, and a moral conclusion.

• Fact: Stopped bodily functions through decrease in body temperature.
• Moral Conclusion: If patient dies, medical team guilty of manslaughter.

You just need a conditional statement that combines them together:

Stopped bodily functions AND patient dies ➞ guilty of manslaughter

It might seem like you’re repeating yourself, but you’re not. The conditional statement is what lets us move from the facts to the conclusion.

___________

1. This answer says the team “could” be charged with manslaughter. We’re looking for an answer that says they are guilty of manslaughter.
2. This gives a necessary condition for being guilty of manslaughter. We’re looking for a sufficient condition for being guilty of manslaughter.
   E.g. This says “Manslaughter ➞ X”, but we need to find “X ➞ Manslaughter”.
3. Same as B. We need a sufficient condition for being guilty of manslaughter.
4. CORRECT. This works. We know that if the patient dies, then the cessation is permanent. This answer says “permanent ➞ manslaughter”.
5. This gives us a way that something is not manslaughter. We’re looking to prove something is manslaughter.
   E.g. If I say “You’ll starve unless you make it out of the desert”, then I’m showing a way that you won’t starve. The statement doesn’t prove starvation.

Recap: The question begins with “Lawyer: In a risky surgical procedure that is performed only”. It is a Principle Justify question. Learn how to master LSAT Principle Justify questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.