LR Drill Set 5, Question 5
Hospital administrator: Dr. Tyler has worked at this(51 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- ABreaches of the(10 more words not shown)
- BThe confidential information(8 more words not shown)
- CDr. Tyler agrees(6 more words not shown)
- DThe newspaper obtained(11 more words not shown)
- EDr. Tyler mistakenly(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Before we punish Dr. Tyler, do we know he was responsible?
The mayor's information appeared in a newspaper. That tells us information got out, but it doesn't tell us who let it out. Another doctor could have shared it. A nurse could have disclosed it, or someone could have accessed a computer system without Dr. Tyler's involvement. Being the mayor's doctor doesn't automatically make every leak his fault.
I'd have more questions even if we established his responsibility. Did the situation fit the policy's exception for danger?
And does this violation justify cutting off contact and taking disciplinary action immediately, or does the hospital sometimes give a warning? The administrator moves from a policy and a newspaper story to a punishment without explaining those steps.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for a required assumption, so we don't have to solve every problem at once. My first prediction is that the leak must be attributable to Dr. Tyler. If he had nothing to do with it, the administrator would lose the stated basis for punishing him. Let's look for that missing connection.
Working the answers
- A
The hospital could take a confidentiality breach equally seriously whether a doctor or a nurse committed it. That wouldn't prevent the administrator from recommending discipline for Dr. Tyler. The argument needs responsibility for a breach, not a comparison making doctors' breaches especially serious.
- B
The information might concern the mayor's medical condition, but the passage doesn't require that narrower description. Perhaps the hospital treats some personal information learned during care as confidential too. The administrator's argument concerns confidential information getting out; it doesn't depend on that information being specifically a medical diagnosis or condition.
- C
Agreeing with a policy and being subject to it are different things. Dr. Tyler could dislike the rule and still be expected to follow it. The administrator says he knows the policy, not that he endorses it. His agreement isn't needed to claim that he should face consequences for violating it.
- DCorrect
This connects the newspaper's information to actions for which Dr. Tyler was responsible. He needn't personally have called the reporter; responsibility could arise through other actions. But if the leak occurred entirely independently of him, the administrator's move to punish him would have no support from the facts given. D supplies a connection the argument cannot do without, even though other questions about justification and punishment remain.
- E
A mistaken belief about danger isn't required. The administrator could recommend punishment precisely because Dr. Tyler disclosed the information without even thinking there was any danger. Nor should we automatically treat a mistaken belief as satisfying the actual exception: the policy permits breaches when patients are clearly dangerous. E adds a particular explanation of his thinking that the argument never needs.
More Necessary Assumption questions
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 1, Question 4Necessary Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 10, Question 2Necessary Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 11, Question 7Necessary Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 12, Question 10Necessary Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 13, Question 11Necessary Assumption
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Necessary Assumption questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.