Question

2. Using discarded embryos to harvest stem cells promises to benefit people with serious diseases that currently have no effective treatment, like Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s. Those people who argue that an embryo is essentially a human being place more importance on a mass of cells than they do on the health of people who are already alive and in need of help. Unstated assumption: Explanation:

Answer 1

  Unstated assumption: "Those people who argue that and embryo is essentially a human being place more importance on a mass of cells than they do on the health of people who are already alive and in need of help."

 Explanation: Although it may seem as and argument expressing a logical relation when it says that the people who are against embryo use cares more about the embryo  that for  the people who are in need of help ,it is all based on presuppositions , on what the writer believes to be true based on environment around him. This unstated assumptions can lead the reader to believe a generalized term to be completely true, if we don't analyze carefully from where does the argument comes.

  That Unstated Assumption is transmitting a generalized message, when we see the statement:

    Those people who argues X ---------> Think like this

  It is meaning that ALL of the people who have the same argument thinks the same way, which is not true, because each one of them has it's own reasons to believe in something, although SOME people might think like the author stated.