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	paraphrasing how to paraphrase an argument

The Principle of Charity should guide our paraphrasing. Here's my interpretation, in what's called Standard Form:

P1: Alcohol is most harmful in the first trimester of pregnancy when most women will not look pregnant at all.

P2: A pregnant woman herself may not know she is pregnant for several weeks after the start of pregnancy.

P3: It is not feasible to rely on gossip about someone's eing pregnant, to administer on-the-spot pregnancy tests or to ban all women of childbearing age from buying alcohol.

P4: It is not fair to prevent pregnant women from purchasing alcohol for a function or a gift rather than their own consumption.

MP5: So, a law against selling alcohol to pregnant women would be ineffective, unenforceable, and unfair.

MP6: There should not be laws that are ineffective, unenforceable, and unfair.

P7: The vast majority of mothers do all they can to ensure a healthy baby.

MP8: So education of women about the harmful effects of alcohol during pregnancy is more likely to prevent pregnant women from drinking alcohol than a law against selling alcohol to pregnant women.

C: Therefore, instead of a law against selling alcohol to pregnant women, there should be education of women about the harmful effects of alcohol during pregnancy.

This is about as compact as it gets. Notice, that MP5 seems to depend on premises 1-4. There is a convention for diagramming the relationship between premises.

National Post, Feb 5,2000

Let Them Drink

I have a couple of comments regarding the article by James Cudmore concerning the submission by the Fetal Alcohol Society of Yukon to forbid pregnant women from purchasing alcohol.

[P1: Ingestion of alcohol, while shown to be harmful at any point in a pregnancy, is perhaps most harmful in the first trimester when most women will not look pregnant at all.] [P2: The woman herself may not know she is pregnant for several weeks.] [P3: How can liquor stores, bars and off-licences possibly execute such an order, if there is no visual evidence? Rely on gossip? Administer on-the-spot pregnancy tests? ("before you sip, show your stick"?) Or ban all women of childbearing age from buying alcohol?]

[P4: Challenging or denying service to a pregnant woman who may be purchasing alcohol for a function or a gift puts them on the same level as a kid buying cigarettes at the corner store.] Instead of imposing a ban that would be impossible to enforce, try a little education. [P7: The vast majority of mothers do all they can to ensure a healthy baby.]

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|r 2009.09.12@07:25 |

GTK
url: http://www.bcskeptics.info/resources/criticalthinking/paraphrasing.html [Δ]

:: random quote
I’d rather be Red than dead.
attribution:	author Unknown. Slogan Of Britain’s Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament Supporters.—time, September 15, 1961, P. 30.