PT 50 S 4 Q 7 Researcher: The use of the newest drug

[aileenann]

We need to identify a flaw - probably one regarding one of the argument's assumptions. Let's keep that in mind as we read through the argument.

One thing that's interesting about this argument is that it's quite one sided. The author tells us the medicine shouldn't be used because it has bad side effects. The obvious question is - what about the good effects? This is probably related to the assumption that is being made and the flaw the LSAT wants you to identify in this question.

(A) is not a big flaw - of course you can always fault an author for not sufficiently defining a key term, but we clearly know what is meant by this phrase.
(B) sounds alright - it does get at what we were concerned about vis-a-vis the good effects of the treatment. Let's keep it for now.
(C) is totally out of scope and simply not true!
(D) is out of scope - we don't care about time - the argument isn't even sufficiently detailed to have gotten to this point yet.
(E) is not good enough. The severity is only relevant once we establish there are some good effects to the treatment - since the argument doesn't say that explicitly, those good effects are currently assumed. Again, we can't even get to this topic yet because the more fundamental stuff hasn't been discussed yet in the answer.

So our answer is (B). It wasn't quite what we were looking for, but this shows how some idea of what to anticipate before you look at your answer choices can keep you open minded and ready to spot answer choices that may not be perfectly on target from your perspective but that are indeed the correct answer.