PrepTest 109, Section 1, Question 13
Ethicist: Studies have documented the capacity of placebos(72 more words not shown)
The ethicist's argument depends on(6 more words not shown)
- AA patient's psychological(9 more words not shown)
- BThe motivation for(13 more words not shown)
- CMedical treatment that(9 more words not shown)
- DThe pain relief(13 more words not shown)
- EAdministering a placebo(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why would wanting the patient to feel that something is being done make the treatment ethically questionable?
The ethicist accepts that a placebo can benefit the patient. Some doctors also say it can help alongside medically effective treatment. We don't need to dispute those claims to understand the objection. The ethicist says that even a beneficial placebo raises an ethical question because of why the doctor might give it: simply to satisfy the patient.
But that reason needs a connection to the ethical judgment. Giving the patient satisfaction isn't obviously bad just because the author mentions it. Are we supposed to judge the treatment partly by the doctor's purpose, rather than by the benefit alone?
What we’re looking for
That is the connection I'd look for in this necessary-assumption question. The author's criticism needs the doctor's motivation to matter to whether giving the placebo is ethically justified. We don't need a sweeping claim that placebos are always wrong.
Working the answers
- A
The author can object to giving a placebo just to satisfy a patient without ruling out psychological satisfaction as any consideration at all. A doctor could consider the patient's satisfaction alongside other reasons. A excludes far more than the criticism requires.
- BCorrect
The argument points to a possible motive for giving the placebo and uses that motive to raise an ethical concern. For that reasoning to work, the motive must be relevant to whether the treatment is ethically justified.
Imagine motivation had no ethical relevance whatsoever. Then learning that the doctor wanted only to give the patient satisfaction would not support the criticism, especially when the author has already allowed that the treatment could benefit the patient. B supplies the modest connection the argument needs. It does not have to tell us that every instance of this motive makes the treatment wrong.
- C
“Ethically indefensible” is stronger than “ethically questionable.” The ethicist also doesn't condemn every treatment relying on the placebo effect alone. The reason offered concerns a doctor's possible motivation. C replaces that concern with an absolute judgment about a category of treatment.
- D
This says the pain relief justifies the deception. That would be a defense of administering a placebo, not something the ethicist must accept to raise an objection to it. We don't need to settle the general ethics of deception here. We need the link between the reason for giving the treatment and the author's criticism.
- E
The example already involves a doctor prescribing a placebo. E tells us about treatment that is not prescribed by a doctor. That restriction wouldn't explain why the doctor's own action is questionable. The argument doesn't need a rule about who else may administer the treatment.
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