As someone who likes her fiction with a side order of Epileptic Trees, I have to say, seeing someone with a small cough and deciding they have "a lung disease" (well, duh, why else were they coughing?) which will prove fatal is completely reasonable. Actually,
more than reasonable.Seriously, someone please tell that person that:
1. Autism is not fatal.
2. People on the spectrum do not find it offensive.
3. Sounds like Asperger's.
4. I'm allowed to think what I want about my fiction. It's called freedom of speech. It's guaranteed by the First, and just because a Brit Twit like you doesn't know what that means doesn't mean you get to tell me what theories are and aren't PC enough for you. Especially you don't get to tell actual autistics to be offended. After all, it might hasten our end. From, you know, that terrible fatal disease we have.
This is the same problem with people who won't make jokes about the Holocaust. Seriously. It's done. It's fair game, okay? Hitler was just a guy. The Holocaust was just a genocide.
The scary thing is I may be the only one alive who will easily back you on that statement about the Holocaust ':B-)