Though popular belief is that modern medicine has improved

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Though popular belief is that modern medicine has improved people's lives, the truth is that it is failing. In 1900, only 20 % of all deaths in our society were attributed to heart disease. In 2000, heart disease was implicated in approximately 55 % of all deaths. If modern medicine really improved people's lives, it would not have allowed this epidemic of heart disease to take such a toll on our society.
Which of the following points to the most serious flaw in the reasoning above?
A. Heart disease has been linked to a wide range of factors, including diet, level of exercise, genetics, and whether or not a person smokes.
B. By largely defeating infectious diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis, and smallpox that kill large numbers of young people, modern medicine has allowed more people to live to an age at which they have a high chance of developing heart disease.
C. Modern doctors are capable of curing very serious diseases, such as Hodgkin's disease or meningitis, that largely eluded the skills of medical practitioners a century ago.
D. If current health trends continue, heart disease will be implicated in more than 60 % of deaths in our society within twenty years.
E. Heart transplants, although they can save the lives of people with very serious heart disease, are too expensive to perform on everyone in our society who develops heart disease.

Is the answer to this A? I found this question in a GMAT question bank i got from a friend. I have no idea what the source is,

[rakeshd347]

Though popular belief is that modern medicine has improved people's lives, the truth is that it is failing. In 1900, only 20 % of all deaths in our society were attributed to heart disease. In 2000, heart disease was implicated in approximately 55 % of all deaths. If modern medicine really improved people's lives, it would not have allowed this epidemic of heart disease to take such a toll on our society.
Which of the following points to the most serious flaw in the reasoning above?
A. Heart disease has been linked to a wide range of factors, including diet, level of exercise, genetics, and whether or not a person smokes.
B. By largely defeating infectious diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis, and smallpox that kill large numbers of young people, modern medicine has allowed more people to live to an age at which they have a high chance of developing heart disease.
C. Modern doctors are capable of curing very serious diseases, such as Hodgkin's disease or meningitis, that largely eluded the skills of medical practitioners a century ago.
D. If current health trends continue, heart disease will be implicated in more than 60 % of deaths in our society within twenty years.
E. Heart transplants, although they can save the lives of people with very serious heart disease, are too expensive to perform on everyone in our society who develops heart disease.

Is the answer to this A?

A should be the correct answer. The argument says that today modern medicine has improved people lives is wrong. Then when you ask why is that....then argument says because more people die from the heart disease now than in 1900......choice A slams the evidence by showing other factors. Choice A says that medicine is not the only factor that matter there are many more factors that matters.
B and C talk about other diseases and what doctors have done to cure them....well good to know for general knowledge but not for this question OFS.
D add more info and says that the trent will continue....so what...it doesn't weaken.
E talks about again heart transplant...it is too expensive and all....Doesn't matter

[theCodeToGMAT]

For me, The Answer is not A but B

Conclusion: Modern Science has not improved
We need to show it has.

[A] - Incorrect; Linking diseases to Heart Disease doesn't prove anything; What is the proof that people were doing "diet", "level of exercise", etc
- Correct; Shows that Medical Sciences has improved to fight various diseases, increasing life of people. But, there's a age at which people develop HEART problems.
[C] - Incorrect; Out of Scope
[D] - Incorrect; We dont want future stats; Out of Scope
[E] - Incorrect; we are not concerned about MONEY.

Any comments?

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Hi All,

This CR question is a FLAW question, NOT a Weaken question. The correct answer will describe the flaw in the author's logic.

Here, the author argues that modern medicine has NOT improved people's lives because the % of people who die of heart disease has increased in the last 100 years.

The FLAW in this thinking is that the ONLY measure of modern medicine's success is in the percentage of people who die of heart disease. The correct answer will explain WHY heart disease is not the only way to measure the success of modern medicine.

Final Answer: B

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich