Why are people here so against a cure for those who need it?

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I'd also like to add that people on the spectrum have brains that are an average of 10-15% larger than the brains of the general population, therefore we have 10-15% more brain cells and neurons than the general population.

I'd like to add that making dehumanising statements against people is not the way to get help for them. The most severely ret*d humans are just as much people as you and I.

When discussing the IQ of people on the lower end of the spectrum, I think everyone would do well to remember that our current methods of testing have no way to actually determine their level of intelligence if they are non-verbal. The WAIS is overwhelmingly a VERBAL test. You could be very intelligent, but if you have a communicative problems, it's going to come out much, much lower than it should. For me, I oppose a "cure" for autism because I know that realistically, that is never going to be a magic pill that we take as adults (who have the ability to decide for themselves) to make what we don't like about autism go away. After the brain has developed, it is too late. It will likely involve gene therapy administered in utero or in infancy. We can't tell at that point whether we saved someone from suffering with severe problems or denied humanity another Einstein by stopping the brain from developing in an autistic fashion.

Has anyone read flowers of algernon?
In this book a mentally ret*d man is cured of his retardation and he suddenly becomes extremely intelligent. But he was happier before the surgery that "cures"
I would suggest that for anyone who has strong opinions about a cure for autistism. It deals alot with the consequences and morals about changing someones brain.

That isn't how I remember that book...Charlie gains the intelligence and is relatively happy, but then discovers that it will not last and he will go back to the way he was before, and that process, which he is aware of as it's happening, devastates him. So the morality question is was it right to put him through that, or should we just let people be as long as they have a reasonable quality of life? It is best not to toy with changing essential qualities of an individual, but accept them as they are and give them the tools and acceptance to be happy with that. What if we discover the ability to "cure" average IQ...should we make everyone a genius? Could we be happy and have society function if everyone were a genius? Or would we just have a bunch of miserable, bored people working average jobs not suited to their intelligence level that would have otherwise been satisfying for them?

"I've also spent time with those people and from what I know, many of them have real jobs in the community, many of them are able to live independently and many of them can come up with a lot of interesting ideas and they're very fun to talk to. They do more than just exist and the more we can get people to see that, the happier everybody will be."

Comments like this one make me wish WP had a "like" button.

Its not being trapped in your mind its being trapped in a universe.

Because I fear autistic people will be cured the same way people with Downs Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis have been "cured" . . . through eugenic abortion.

I used Google Scholar to search "post prenatal testing abortion rates" these are for the US and Canada.

Places like NIH and CDC have written on that, and you can research it for yourself. Percentages vary. Between 90-92% of Down's Syndrome kids are aborted following prenatal testing. I saw one stat that says 95% of Cystic Fibrosis kids are aborted.

Down's kids and Cystic Fibrosis kids aren't being demonized by the media like Aspergers kids and teens are, so I can only imagine the abortion rates for autistic kids would be higher than 95% once a prenatal test is developed.

No...it was a very good point to what we were talking about A major theme of the book is "Just because science may be able to change a human being fundamentally to suit the norm, doesn't mean it should." Right on target.