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Lorenzo's Oil Quiz
1.What was the primary disease in this movie and whom did it affect? Adrenoleukodystrophy which is a demyelination disease
that strips away the myelin away from the nerve. At first it can be mistaken for attention deficit disorder, then signs of
severe neurological involvement which indicates ALDS.
http://www.aldfoundation.org/materials.htm
2. How would you classify the disease' impact on the patients functional status..mild, moderate or severe, and why? The
impact on the family was mild at first due to occasional occurrences, but as the disease progressed the impact became more
severe. Lorenzo needed much more attention and care once the disease entered its final stages.
3. In your opinion, how did the research doctors regard Lorenzo's parents? The doctor's acted as if his parents didn't
know anything about the disease, due to the fact that they hadn't attended medical school.
4. "The roles of the researchers were juxtaposed or changed in this movie." Explain why this is true. Lorenz's
parents took the role of researchers.
5. Dad had a breakthrough at the library - explain the paperclip analogy/model. The carbon units were represented by
paper clips, also to be understood as a fatty acid. When you liked the paper clips together you got a fatty acid chain. One
is harmed by ALD while the other is not. I understood this to be tricking the body into producing more of the good ones than
the bad ones.
6. Dad was concerned when Lorenzo's friend came from Africa to live with the Adone's and care for Lorenzo. What was Dad's
primary concern? His dads main concern was the Lorenzo's friend would be shocked and couldn't understand why Lorenzo was
sick. Also seeing how much Lorenzo had changed.
7. Who was the first human subject to consume the oil and how was it dosed and administered through what portal (ingested,
injected, absorbed, inhaled, or other)? The first human was Diedra. She ate on her salad as salad dressing.
8. What is the role of money in this research product? Who paid for most of the early groundbreaking research? The government
didn't fund this research due to the rarity of the disease. Most of the funding was provided by Lorenzo's family.
9. The critical mass theory suggests that multiple researchers conclusively find (or frequently stumble upon) an answer
to a scientific inquiry. Were the researchers on a single path to finding a cure for this disease? The researchers didn't
find one cure. They stumbled upon many paths that could be cure.
10. Consider ethics for a moment. Does this movie represent a appropriate ethical model for research. Defend your answer.
If I were in Lorenzo's parent shoes I would try to find a cure just like his father did. I would work and study every aspect
of the disease. It's not an ethical model due to the unethical testing and strategies used. But in desperate situations I
would have taken the same role. Now on the research part of the question looking up different ideas then testing your theories,
yes that is a good model for research. So I am torn to both sides.
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