PrepTest 147, Section 3, Question 15
The following passage is based on an article(425 more words not shown)
The primary purpose of the(7 more words not shown)
- Aprovide a view(9 more words not shown)
- Bexplore the factors(6 more words not shown)
- Cundermine the moral(8 more words not shown)
- Dstate the main(9 more words not shown)
- Eillustrate the conflicts(7 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The second paragraph explains why theoretical equipoise is too demanding. Researchers must judge the evidence exactly balanced, yet they commonly have preferences. Even an initial balance could be tipped by small additions to the evidence. That makes the standard difficult to satisfy both when starting a trial and while continuing it.
What we’re looking for
Those practical consequences prepare the case for a different standard in the next paragraph.
Working the answers
- A
Criticizing theoretical equipoise supports the move toward clinical equipoise. It does not supply a view opposed to the later arguments for the alternative.
- B
Intuition and assessments of evidence are mentioned as sources of preference, but the paragraph doesn't investigate why doctors favor particular treatments. Preferences matter because their existence disrupts the required exact balance.
- C
The author doesn't reject the underlying obligation to provide the best available treatment. The criticism concerns an impractically strict interpretation of that obligation, not the moral principle itself.
- DCorrect
The main difficulty is attaining and maintaining exact evidential balance. The definition, the discussion of preferences, and the fragility of an initial balance all explain why strict adherence would prevent many trials from starting or finishing.
- E
The criticism targets theoretical equipoise, not every possible conception of equipoise. The author goes on to defend another conception, so a general attack would misdescribe the paragraph's role.
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