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Article Rebuttal

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As a whole the United States set the legal minimum drinking age at 21, but expectation such as drinking for medical reasons, consumption at home, under adult supervision, and many other reasons do exits depending on the state. In an article called "Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered From 21 To a Younger Age?" argues the legal drinking age for Americans should be lowered because, "Turning 18 entails receiving the rights and responsibilities of adulthood to vote, serve on juries, get married, sign contracts, join the military--which includes taking on the responsibilities of life and death--and be prosecuted as adults. Adults from the age of 18 should therefore also be trusted to make decisions about alcohol consumption"("Should The Drinking Age Be Lowered From 21 To A Younger Age?", n.d.). In this rebuttal using valid arguments, supporting data, analyzing the reliability, credibility, and validity of the data used by the author, and identifying any logical fallacies in the argument it will be explained why the minimum drinking age should not be lowered. The legal minimum drinking age was not always 21 for the United States. At one point in time different states had the legal minimum drinking age set to age 20, 19, even 18. The main reason the legal age for drinking should not be lowered is safety." Federal transportation authority's viewed this hodge-podge of state laws as a real highway traffic safety problem. Alcohol-related traffic injuries and fatalities were increasing and some of this was as a result of kids traveling from their home states to neighboring states that had lower drinking ages and then becoming injured or killed as they returned to their home states. These became known as “blood borders.”" (Arnold-Burger, n.d.). This situation got the attention of Congress and President Reagan and the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was put into play. The Act in so many words was a threat that the states will lose 10% of their funds for the federal highway if the state did not agree to change the minimum drinking age to 21. Eventually all 50 states complied and that is why across the nation the minimum drinking age is 21. The article also states "When adolescents are not taught to drink in moderation, they end up binge drinking when they do consume alcohol. It is better to teach youth to learn how to drink responsibly and hold them accountable for their actions as we do with driving". ("Should The Drinking Age Be Lowered From 21 To A Younger Age?", n.d.). Within recent years research on the stages of brain development has been released and it has been learned that the brain does not finish developing until a person reaches their early twenties. "Brain maturation culminates in the prefrontal cortex. This is the area that controls judgments and weighing risks and consequences. Previously, this area was thought to be fully mature by the age of 18. Studies now suggest that this area is not fully developed until around the age of 25" (Arnold-Burger, n.d.). In other words no matter how much you sit down and talk to the youth there is no guaranteed that they will fully understand and take into consideration the risk at hand. In conclusion "as human beings, we are not doomed to reach conclusions and make decisions... Our primary tool in making better judgments is critical thinking" (Moore, Parker, & Rosenstand, "What is Critical Thinking?," 2009). In this country responsibility comes in stages depending on different ages. Although many people feel that the legal drinking age laws seems to be somewhat arbitrary, Americans must understand that the National Minimum Drinking Age Act as been around for some time now and current research shows that age 21 if not older is where the legal age should stay because the lives of the future children depend on it.

References
Arnold-Burger, K. (n.d.). Regional Prevention Center. Retrieved from http://4prevention.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/the-top-five-reasons-we-should-keep-the- drinking-age-at-21/
Should the Drinking Age be Lowered From 21 to A Younger Age?. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://drinkingage.procon.org/#background
Moore, B. N., Parker, R., & Rosenstand, N. (2009). Critical Thinking Basics (9th ed.). Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx?assetMetaId= -bb67-4b15-af48-5c1fe51333db&assetDataId=bf816743-f6d7-4cfa-8902- 35a34e4e2402&assetpdfdataid=18d6e79a-fba2-4f7f-8071-b35a14db3f11.

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