LSAT Explanation PT 35, S4, Q15: Geneticist: Ethicists have fears, many of

LSAT Question Stem

The claim that cloning will not produce adults with identical personalities plays which one of the following roles in the geneticist's argument? 

Logical Reasoning Question Type

This is an Argument Part question. 

Correct Answer

The correct answer to this question is E. 

LSAT Question Complete Explanation

First, let's summarize and analyze the argument in the passage. The geneticist begins by acknowledging that ethicists have reasonable fears about cloning human beings. Then, they argue that the horror-movie image of a wealthy person creating an army of exact duplicates is completely unrealistic, because clones need to be raised and educated, which is a long-term process that could never produce adults with identical outlooks, personalities, or goals. Finally, the geneticist suggests that a more realistic possibility is that wealthy individuals might use clones as living "organ banks."

The structure of the argument is as follows:

1. Premise: Ethicists have fears about cloning human beings.

2. Premise: Clones must be raised and educated, which could never produce adults identical to the original in terms of outlook, personality, or goals.

3. Conclusion: The horror-movie image of a wealthy person creating an army of exact duplicates is completely unrealistic.

Now, let's discuss the question type and what it's asking us to do. The question is an Argument Part question, which asks us to identify the role that a specific claim plays in the geneticist's argument. In this case, we need to determine the role of the claim that cloning will not produce adults with identical personalities.

Let's go through each answer choice in detail:

a) It is a reason for dismissing the various fears raised by ethicists regarding the cloning of human beings.

- This answer choice is incorrect because it overstates the scope of the claim. The claim only addresses one specific fear (the horror-movie image of an army of duplicates), not all the various fears raised by ethicists.

b) It is evidence that genetic clones will never be produced successfully.

- This answer choice is incorrect because it misinterprets the claim. The claim is about the impossibility of producing adults with identical personalities, not the impossibility of producing genetic clones in general.

c) It illustrates the claim that only wealthy people would be able to have genetic duplicates made of themselves.

- This answer choice is incorrect because it is unrelated to the claim in question. The claim about identical personalities does not illustrate or support the idea that only wealthy people could have genetic duplicates.

d) It is evidence for the claim that wealthy people might use genetic duplicates of themselves as sources of compatible organs for transplantation.

- This answer choice is incorrect because the claim about identical personalities is not evidence for the "organ bank" possibility. The "organ bank" idea is presented as a separate, more realistic possibility, but it is not directly supported by the claim in question.

e) It is a reason for discounting one possible fear concerning the cloning of human beings.

- This answer choice is correct because it accurately describes the role of the claim in the argument. The claim that cloning will not produce adults with identical personalities is a reason for discounting the specific fear of an army of exact duplicates, which is part of the horror-movie image.

So, the correct answer is E.