Critical Thinking to Analyze Argumentation Errors - Term Paper Example

? Critical thinking to analyze written materials for argumentation errors Article analysis “Urinalysis: The supreme court’s torturous justification of high school urine test” and “Vaccines may fuel epidemic” are articles which are argumentative in nature. They both question a lot of decisions that have been made in the past. Urinalysis by Dahlia Lithwick Dahlia is apprehensive about how the constitution has been stretched selfishly, and instead its now been applied in the wrong way. The fact that the government decides that it is now okay to test all kids in school who want to join extracurricular activities is reprehensible. To add salt to injury, they have no basis for the assumption as to whether or not they actually use any drugs. This has just served to turn schools into prisons. They assume that since there has been a few cases of drug use, then all students are likely to engage in drug abuse. This is a clear breach from the fourth amendment which clearly states that people, both children and adults, should only be tested if they exhibited behavior that causes suspicion or in jobs that could be dangerous if performed while high. Initially, these were special need cases that were quoted in the amendment of the constitution. However, “the courts might be prepared to suspend all rules of constitutional interpretation based on the preposterous legal theory that ‘heck, we ought to try something’” (Dahlia, 2002) The amazing thing is that, they would go to all lengths to pass this rule that was greatly imposed in the high schools. They take away any privacy that is left in schools. Even with no threat of drug use, they justify this in all ways they find possible. According to Dahlia, teachers even claim that they heard students speak openly about the use of drugs, (Dahlia, 2002). Thomas defends his statements further claiming that they are preventing the occurrence of a future problem. However, they don’t consider what this does to a child’s psychology. Subjecting an innocent student that has never actually thought of using drug may give them a reason to use it. Fallacies Appeal to probability This is the assumption that just because something is likely to happen, it will inevitably happen (Avoiding logical fallacies, 2009). From Thomas’ argument that there will be a looming drug problem even though there is none, (Dahlia, 2002), it is quite clear that he foresees a problem even without the evidence that it will actually take place. Appeal to ignorance This is a proposition that something is right since it has not been proven wrong (Ballard, 2007). It is wrong to assume that because railroad workers and custom officers endanger the public with drug use, even the students will endanger themselves (Dahlia, 2002). This assumption is baseless. Ecological fallacy This is basing inferences about the nature of a group on the statistics collected to the group to which those individuals belong (Avoiding logical fallacies, 2009). The fact that those that are involved in the school core curricular activities are the ones that are into drug use is completely fallacious. Vaccines may fuel autism epidemic by Kelly Patricia O’Meara According to Kelly, new studies have shown that vaccines that contain mercury-based preservative may be the cause of autism. Despite being a serious disease which is on the rise in the United States, autism has not been taken like a serious epidemic just yet. The effort that is used to look for the cure to outbreaks like SARS is yet to be seen being applied to finding the cure for autism that has none yet. It is a neural development disorder that causes social interaction impairment and uncoordinated speech and behavior. It is realized in the first 2-5 years of a child. This is the main reason why over the years, vaccines have become suspect of being the cause. What is put in these vaccines can quite justify this. “Formaldehyde (used in embalming), Thimerosal (nearly 50 percent mercury), aluminum phosphate (toxic and carcinogenic), antibiotics, phenols (corrosive to tissue and neurotoxic), methanol (toxic), isopropyl (toxic), live viruses and a host of unknown components considered off limits. These are just part of the mixture.” (Kelly, 2003). This vaccine is injected into the body of an hours old child and with a number of more visits. This is the main reason why the vaccine come as top of the list cause of autism. The continued use of thimerosal in preserving vaccines is the more reason why eye brows are raised. Mercury is believed to have a link between neurodevelopment disorders and heart diseases. Yet the amount of mercury that children receive during their immunization program is stunning. “They exceed both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) established maximum permissible levels for the daily oral ingestion of methyl mercury.” (Kelly, 2003) Though the Government has banned the use of this preservative, the question that is still pending is whether it has actually ceased. The statement by the spokesman of Aventis Pasteur, maker of DTaP that they have changed the contents of the vaccine despite what is written on the package insert is more astounding. The fact that the instructions of use cannot be relied on by the doctor, then there is no need of using the said drug. The use of this preservative is not even necessary since we see vaccines like the measles vaccine contain no thimerosal. Instead of packing multiple doses and end up using thimerosal to prevent contamination, it would be easier to just pack them in single doses. However, this is hard to implement since the pharmaceutical companies would not like to spend a penny more to their budget. The fact that mercury has been withdrawn from everything else except the vaccines which are even more sensitive since they era been used on kids. Whether the manufactures want to avoid blame if there is a change after the withdrawal or it is to ensure profits, we don’t have a clear reason as to why it is still in use. Fallacies Fallacy of composition This is the assumption that something is true of the whole since its true of some part of the part (Copi & Cohen, 1990). It is true that there are components that are dangerous in the vaccine like the presence of the thimerosal. However, this does not mean that the whole vaccine is harmful. We have seen a lot of benefits of vaccination. That antibodies help in the prevention from the attack from different pathogens to the body. Fallacy of the single cause It assumes that there is a single cause of the outcome while in real sense there may be other causes which joint (Ballard, 2007). Vaccines may be a cause of autism (Kelly, 2003), but this does not mean that there are no other causes which can be blamed on. Appeal to unseen evidence This is reaching conclusions without having seen the evidence (Copi & Cohen, 1990). Rep. Dan Burton assumes that his grandson became autistic after receiving nine vaccines one day. However this accusation has no evidence to support it. The lack of evidence makes the statement erroneous and thus hard to believe. Implications of the errors This errors cause a problem in the approach of issues. The lack of enough evidence against in both articles and the biased approaches from the articles makes it hard to know what is true and what is not. In addition, the fact that most people easily conform to what they hear and see, makes it even harder for people to seek professional help. This causes a lot of clash of interests in both parties. References Avoiding logical fallacies. (2009). Retrieved June 2012, from Walden Online Writing Center: http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu Ballard, J. L. (2007). Fallacies. Retrieved June 2012, from www.freewebs.com/thinkingstraight/Fallacies Copi, M. I., & Cohen, C. (1990). Introduction to Logic (8th ed). Macmillan. Dahlia, L. (2002, July 3). Urinalysis. Slate Magazine . Kelly, O. P. (2003, July 7). Vaccines may fuel autism epidemic. Insight on the News,19(14) , pp. 24-27. Read More