Meade: People who are injured as a result of their risky behaviors not only cause harm to themselves but, because we ...

shunhe on July 7, 2020

Hi @Sheikhd,

Thanks for the question! So let’s take a look at the structure of this argument. The conclusion is about how governments are justified in out lawing behavior that puts one’s own health at risk. This is because people who injure themselves also injure others basically. So we want something that’ll weaken the argument here, and so we want to weaken the idea that governments get to outlaw self-harming behaviors.

OK, now take a look at (A). It tells us that endangering social ties you have to other people is a harm to oneself. And I’d say there’s two problems with this answer choice. The first is that we’re not ever told about endangering social ties. We’re told that hurting ourselves also hurts others, but not that it endangers social ties. So this doesn’t even seem to be something mentioned in the original argument. Also, nothing in this answer choice connects to the idea of “governments shouldn’t outlaw behavior that puts one’s own health at risk,” and that’s what we need to weaken. So since nothing even ties to that concept, this answer choice is just irrelevant and can be eliminated.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.