Though popular belief is that modern medicine has improved people's

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.