In response to high mortality in area hospitals, surgery was restricted to emergency procedures during a five-week pe...
ginakdJune 26, 2022
Why is E incorrect?
I was stuck between A and E but ultimately chose E because I thought it provided an alternate cause for the increased deaths. So how can we safely eliminate this answer choice?
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We are trying to undermine the conclusion that the risks of elective surgery were often unnecessary. The argument shows that those risks are high (eliminating these surgeries led to a fall of one third in deaths), but high risk and unnecessary are not the same thing.
A shows this to be the case. These surgeries, according to A, were not unnecessary. Despite the high risk, they were life-saving, and postponement would only increase the risk.
E would show another cause of death, but that does not actually impact the argument. The author is trying to show that these risks are unnecessary. Even if the deaths do not occur in surgery, the deaths in E are a direct result of surgery. E does nothing to undermine the idea that the surgeries themselves are not necessary.
