Geneticist: Ethicists have fears, many of them reasonable, about the prospect of cloning human beings, that is, pr...

Annie on April 10, 2020

Hi @zacharylouiskane@gmail.com,

You are correct that the first sentence discusses multiple fears, and that the the ethicists likely have multiple fears about cloning. However, the passage goes on (in sentence two) to discuss one particular fear- aka that wealthy people might create clone armies.

Here's a run through of the answer choices:

(A) is incorrect because it is not dismissing ALL of the ethicists' fears (in fact, we have no idea what all of their fears are). Instead, it is addressing one particular fear.

(B) is incorrect because we don't know that this means genetic clones won't be successfully produced. All it tells us is that clones won't be identical to the original.

(C) is incorrect because the sentence in question is not about wealth.

(D) is incorrect because the sentence is not being used to support the concluding sentence but rather the one before it. The fact that clones are not identical to the original would not affect the prospect of them being used for organ banks.

(E) is correct because it correctly identifies that this sentence is being used to discount the sentence before it. We know that there is a fear of wealthy people building clone armies. Then, the sentence in question, tells us that this won't happen because they won't be identical to the original. Thus, it is "discounting one possible fear concerning the cloning of human beings."