Argument 188

TOPIC: ARGUMENT188 - A new report suggests that men and women experience pain very differently from one another, and that doctors should consider these differences when prescribing pain medications. When researchers administered the same dosage of kappa opioids-a painkiller-to 28 men and 20 women who were having their wisdom teeth extracted, the women reported feeling much less pain than the men, and the easing of pain lasted considerably longer in women. This research suggests that kappa opioids should be prescribed for women whenever pain medication is required, whereas men should be given other kinds of pain medication. In addition, researchers should reevaluate the effects of all medications on men versus women.
WORDS: 420 TIME: 00:36:35 DATE: 2008-3-13 21:45:43

At first glance, it seems somewhat reasonable that ... as the issue presents; however, close scrutiny of evidence unveils that this argument actually suffers from a few critical flaws. For instance, the reliability of the research conducted in this argument is questionable; besides, the conclusion that kappa opioids is suitable for healing all women who get a pain is too cursory to be made. Aside from these two vital flaws, there are still other subordinate pitfalls in this argument, which will be discussed in detail and respectively.

In the first place, the credibility of the research needs to be suspected. For example, besides the same dosage of kappa opioids are introduced to both men and women, it is not mentioned whether other medicine is also used during women's treatment. Suppose that Aspirin, a kind of medicine aiming to relieve pain, is taken by the women in this research, then, women surely feel much less pain than the men. Moreover, the research does not take into account that men typically are more or less larger than women in body type. Thus, unless men take more kappa opioids than women, men will conspicuously feel much more pain than women.

In the second place, the speaker concludes that kappa opioids should be prescribed for women in any event when pain arises. However, the arguer is too hasty to give this conclusion. Consider, for instance, certain special women are sensitive to kappa opioids--i.e., these women may feel uncomfortable or exhibit allergic phenomenon after taking kappa opioids, which is harmful for their health. Therefore, the result of the research, if supposed to be correct, should not be generalized without positive enough support of a myriad of experiments.

Thirdly, even the research is inerrant and accurately conforms to the fact, the action of reevaluating the effects of all medications on men versus women lacks possibility of practical operating. The reason for this is simple: innumerous categories of medications exist in the current world. Comparison between men and women may consume several years, which is unacceptable by both patients and doctors. Moreover, some medicines are for women or men only, and reevaluation on men versus women is unlikely to be worked out.

In conclusion, the argument actually has several flaws as discussed above, and is not convincing as it stands. To solidify the argument, the arguer would have to provide evidence that the research is credible and conforms to reality. Furthermore, the arguer would have to consider practical circumstances before reevaluation of all medications is scheduled.