Do you think we should be allowed to mate?

Post Reply New Topic

I would so love that. Just ensure the proposed new planet has plenty of animals and mountains.

wish there was a UniWeb so we could see it all clearly already... maybe there is.

Heck I'd even be satisfied with our own island. We are the modern lepers, after all.

I wasn't diagnosed as being Asperger's/HFA until I was 35 years old. Had I known that what was "wrong" with me from birth had a name and a potentially strong genetic cause, I probably would never have had kids. But by the time I found this out, it was too late. I had already procreated!

My son was 13 when I was diagnosed. My son is NT- as well as is most of the rest of my family. My paternal grandfather was most likely also on the spectrum, but even he had a successful career as a machinist, and had served in the Army in WWII.

Being on the autistic spectrum isn't the worst thing that can happen to someone. ASDs don't rule out good life any more than being NT guarantees good life. In some ways I'm glad I wasn't diagnosed until later in life because there are so many things that I have worked hard to be able to do that I might not have even tried. How many times have people said things like "people with ASDs can't work, or drive, or do this or do that?" I've had to figure out ways to do the things I need to do to live and survive and function- because I had no other choice. I think in some ways that's an advantage. I don't wish the way I'm wired on anyone, but I wouldn't trade it for the world, either.

I do NOT regret having my son, ever. I am thankful that he's an intelligent, loving and productive person. I couldn't have predicted that a child of mine would be normal and healthy and do well given all the difficulties I've had from day one.

On the flipside, being normal and healthy doesn't guarantee against having a child with physical or psychological deficits. Sometimes genetics are just a big old grab bag. Some people get better grabs from the bag than others.

Which society? Southern California? Eastern Canada? Egypt?
And if we go with SoCal, which part of SoCal? LA? San Diego?
Or do you mean the entire world as a whole? Because as a whole, they would be in complete disagreement, especially because of ethics. And as others have stated, if they did agree to ban autistics, it wouldn't stop there and the repercussions would be bad, as we've already seen. There is no real rational thought behind banning procreation for certain people, only fear. The fear of children suffering, in this case.
People suffer, it's a human condition. There are so many people out there who are suffering right now for various different reasons that have nothing to do with autism, while there are plenty of those on the spectrum who are perfectly fine being alive.

You can be upset with your parents for having you, if you like, but I'm grateful for mine, and I'm very glad they weren't banned from breeding.

Autism seems to run in my family.
Also I've read that it's quite likely that two people with Asperger's who mate, might end up with a kid that has autism and they may be on the lower end of the spectrum, even if chances are likely, theirs also a chance that the kid won't be affected.

Good question though!

Autism isn't necessary genetic but some families do have relatives with it
But then like others said, two neurotypicals can end up with a kid with autism.


Also depends on dna
Age, environmental factors ect

Whoever people end up mating with
theirs always that chance amongst a risk with other conditions ect.

It really doesn't matter, this is about the fundamental question and the technicalities are irrelevant.
I'm asking for opinions and not on how and where we could begin to implement such a program.
Maybe a better question would've been 'Do you think we should refrain from reproducing' or something alone those lines.
It's true that people suffer, and its also true that we usually do whatever we can to alleviate suffering.
Life shouldn't be about suffering. That is what the idea of hell is about.
As I see it autism is mostly a disability, and it seems to me frankly selfish to create more of it only to perpetuate our suffering.
I would be scared to have children because of it.
I don't want to be offensive or anything I'm just putting it out there.
And again I don't know really know the state of other autistics in the world in general I just go off of what I see on sites like this, but my personal experience with it has been quite bad.

If you're going off of what you're reading here, you must be glazing over all the testimonials of people saying they like who they are and those who love their kids.
You cannot get rid of autism, especially when you don't really know how it even occurs. It's obvious that refraining from reproducing won't help since many, many NTs have autistic kids. You cannot prevent autism. You can only decide for yourself if having kids is right for you. This matter is up to personal choice.

We cannot prevent suffering just by not having kids, and who's to say whether the kids we have will suffer or not? There is no way to know. Your question could be posed to anyone. Why should anyone reproduce if there's a chance the child could suffer?
What we can do is try to make other lives better, to help society to change for the better. We've already come a long ways from being locked up in an attic, hidden away from society. Let's keep making it better so that those who are born autistic, or who have any other characteristic/birth defect/trait/etc that society views negatively, can have better lives in the future than what we've experienced.

Agree with the comment above

having kids is a personal choice
theirs risk with everything when you have kids, from disabilities, bad health, cot death but
these things are quite rare.

If people decide to have kids, good for them!
don't let anything in life discourage you from doing anything
theirs risk with everything in live but you can't stop living because of it.

It's because it's a social philosophy that has been proven wrong, over and over (it actually messes with genetic diversity which has been proven to be stronger than "purebred"). Not only that, but eugenics has been practiced by more than just the Nazi party, and has been used as an instrument of torture. It was implemented all over the Western World for starters. I highly recommend doing additional research besides what the Nazis did, because there was and is some really, really terrible things that have happened as a result of eugenics. Only someone with a lack of empathy could get on board with it.

I think we should be cloned

The agony is from society, not from autism. Yes, you can change the world. You might not be able to see that from here but it's true. I can remember 1960 and there's no comparison. Asperger's wasn't discovered until 1994 and we've only recently found each other. I have no doubt things will get better. And I don't blame you for feeling bad about how things are.

If us autistics shouldn't be allowed to mate then the same should be imposed on NT's.

I'm aware it was used by America at least before the Nazi's pushed it to extremes, albeit I'm not sure to exactly what effect.

How was it used for torture? I don't see how the concept of eugenics could even possibly be used for torture in my mind.

It seems fallacious to say that only people with a lack of empathy (which incidentally we are known to be) could endorse eugenics simply due to various abuses of it in the past.

I don't know much about the genetic diversity argument and other things like that so I can't really comment on that, it could be there are good reasons to oppose eugenics.
I'm also not necessarily promoting the idea we should be sterilized, just seeing what others hopefully objective views on the matter were.

Life of "typical" Aspie may look worse than mine for me because of painful sensory problems, prosopagnosia, worse theory of mind etc - even when a person is more bright, is wealthier and deals better with life problems despite of mentioned difficulties. And I am not so interested in having wife other than typical Aspijka, these issues even look "sexy" to my mentality... My mentality wants to have only wife with "typical ASD". Other women are "not interesting", "boring". I like to read about Aspies and I can notice that I am different than they. I have not many of the issues which they have. But I may be seriously impaired mentally despite it. My sexual drive is a problem for me. I would be afraid than children of classical Aspijka will have painful senosry issues or maybe even Kanner's syndrome. Other people in my family are significantly more "normal" than me.

Too late!

My children and grandchildren would disagree with you.

Well, hey, you can believe what you want. But I am not in favor of eugenics or banning "us" from procreation. It is our God given right, though I am remaining celebate until I hear from God on who I should be with... if ever that is His will.

Let alone the fact that 2 parents with ASD can produce NT children. There is nothing wrong with being born with a disability, it's really a matter of attitude and what you do with it. I love all my Aspie ASD friends and am thankful to God they were born. I'm also thankful to be alive to this day, and I hope you someday will be as well.