agument51 victors小组第三次作业

DavidBoyUID: 2140040

题目：ARGUMENT 51 - The following appeared in a medical newsletter.
"Doctors have long suspected that secondary infections may keep some patients from healing quickly after severe muscle strain. This hypothesis has now been proved by preliminary results of a study of two groups of patients. The first group of patients, all being treated for muscle injuries by Dr. Newland, a doctor who specializes in sports medicine, took antibiotics regularly throughout their treatment. Their recuperation time was, on average, 40 percent quicker than typically expected. Patients in the second group, all being treated by Dr. Alton, a general physician, were given sugar pills, although the patients believed they were taking antibiotics. Their average recuperation time was not significantly reduced. Therefore, all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain would be well advised to take antibiotics as part of their treatment."
字数：371          用时：0:41:54          日期：2007-7-4
The author asserts that that all patients should take antibiotics because an experience made by a doctor and a physician. However, there are several flaws make the argument unconvincing.

To begin with, the health condition of the two groups of patients are not mentioned at all. If the patients are all strong men who are healthier than regular ones or if the first group is consisted by strong men while the other group is all weak old women,then the result of the experience can democrate nothing.

Even if all the patients taken in the experience is common ones, we don't know  if they are treated all the same except pills. Since the first group is treated by a sporte medicine doctor, it is posibily that he knows what patients feel and need and takes good care of the them. While other group is treated by a general physician doctor who may know nothing about how to deal with patients and may do nothing at all. Before the author provide more evidence to envy the posibility that the two groups of people are treated differently, he can't convince me.

Assuming that all the patients are treated the same and the result of the experience is not doutful, it can be concluded all patients should take antibiotics. Every person's body have some differences with others. A kind of medicine that is safe to some person doesn't mean it is safe to others. Some certain kind of materials may kill a group of special people. The author must provide demostration that antibiotics is safe to all people or not all patients could take it.

Even if antibiotics is a safe medicine to all people, it doesn't mean it is the best medicine patients should take. It is very probably that some other medicine is quicker than it. If there is a kind of medicine more than 40 percent quicker than typically expected, it just can't say all patients should take antibiotics.

As a conclusion, the author must make sure whether the patients in the experience are regular ones, the treatment patients are taken by the two doctors,the safety of antibiotics and other medicine's effection before he can claim that all patients should take antibiotics.

[ 本帖最后由 DavidBoy 于 2007-7-4 19:44 编辑 ]