PrepTest 130, Section 1, Question 5
Doctor: While a few alternative medicines have dangerous(56 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(8 more words not shown)
- AMany practitioners and(11 more words not shown)
- BMany herbal remedies(14 more words not shown)
- CSome patients may(13 more words not shown)
- DThe vast majority(21 more words not shown)
- EAny pain relief(24 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
An herb could be safe to swallow and still be a harmful choice of treatment.
Imagine a patient with cancer taking basil in place of an effective treatment such as chemotherapy prescribed for that patient. The concern isn't that the basil directly damages the patient's body. It's that relying on it could keep the patient from receiving treatment that would help. Something can cause harm through what it replaces.
What we’re looking for
That is the problem with the doctor's “might help, won't hurt” reasoning. Little firm evidence of medicinal benefit doesn't establish that these herbs are useless, but safe consumption doesn't settle whether prescribing them for a serious illness is harmless. To weaken the prescription recommendation, I want evidence that patients forgo more effective treatment.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Practitioners and patients neglect more effective conventional medicines in favor of herbs. That is the problem in the basil example. Even if the herbal product causes no direct injury, substituting it for better treatment can leave the illness less effectively treated. The doctor therefore hasn't established that prescribing it will not harm patients.
- B
Unproven marketing claims may be misleading, but the doctor already acknowledges little firm evidence of medicinal effect. The recommendation rests on the claim that patients won't be harmed and might benefit. B doesn't tell us that those claims lead patients to forgo better treatment or otherwise establish the harm that would challenge that rationale.
- C
This says some patients react to certain medicines, without identifying the herbs that the argument describes as proven safe to consume. The general fact could concern quite different medicines. We'd need an additional connection before using it to challenge the safety claim about these particular products.
- D
Wanting a profit doesn't itself show that a practitioner harms patients. The choice even allows a concern for patients' health alongside that motive. We need evidence against the doctor's no-harm reasoning, not an assumption that making money and helping a patient are incompatible.
- E
A benefit caused by belief is still a benefit for the patient. If an herb provides pain relief through that mechanism, the doctor's claim that a patient might be helped remains possible. The argument doesn't require biochemical action, and E supplies no reason that using the product would harm the patient.
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