GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) | Re: Medical ethicists have argued about if the right to die

Already explained by Abhishek - a bit more on this:

A hypothetical situation (unlikely event in future) within an IF clause is represented by simple past:

IF Ibecame the minister, I would eradicate poverty.
IF hecame , we would play.

However a special case is that the verb "was", though simple past, is never used in such situation. As a rule, the verb "was" is replaced by "were" irrespective
...

---