LSAT 158 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q7

LR Question 7 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Ethicist: This hospital’s ethics code states that hospital staff…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: Dr. Faris is guilty of an ethics violation, even though the medication worked.

REASONING: Doctors are guilty of an ethics violation if they deceive a patient about a treatment. Dr. Faris told a patient that Medication A would help him sleep, even though it is not known to induce sleep.

ANALYSIS: We are weakening here, so we want to show that Dr. Faris was not guilty of an ethics violation. To do so, we have to show that he didn’t deceive the patient when he told them that Medication A would help them sleep.

It helps us that the medication did work, because we know the outcome worked. But in order to not be guilty, Dr. Faris needed to not be deceptive – so he must have known it would work. We know it isn’t known to induce sleep, but it must have had some effect to help him sleep.

___________

1. This doesn’t weaken the argument. If he knew it didn’t induce sleep, but told the patient it would help them sleep, he was deceitful. We need something to show he wasn’t deceiving them.
2. The ethics code may be soon revised, but that doesn’t change the fact that Dr. Faris appears to be in violation right now.
3. CORRECT. The medication doesn’t induce sleep, but it solves the problem preventing the patient from sleeping. So it did help them sleep, and Dr. Faris probably knew that it would.
4. Other doctors prescribing it to patients for different reasons doesn’t tell us whether Dr. Faris was deceitful.
5. This doesn’t make Dr. Faris less deceitful or unethical. He still told a patient it would help them sleep, and we have nothing to show that the statement was true.

Recap: The question begins with “Ethicist: This hospital’s ethics code states that hospital staff”. It is a Weaken question. Learn how to master LSAT Weaken questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.