No parent can prepare for a diagnosis like this. However, as a doctoral student in theology and health care ethics at Saint Louis University, I am in a unique situation. Before we learned my son’s diagnosis, I approached this field as an academic. After the diagnosis, everything changed. PBD-ZSD is a rare, genetic disorder that affects all organ systems of the body. Peroxisomes are organelles in cells that are involved in many essential metabolic pathways. In PBD-ZSD, these peroxisomes can be absent, reduced in number, or not functioning properly, resulting in a spectrum of clinical issues. There is no effective treatment or cure for this disorder.