Follow-up to the "Half-Breeds" thread

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I was thinking about all the replies to a post I made a couple of weeks back on the subject of Aspies being half-breeds, and had a few thoughts on the opinions that people shared.

"To be a different species, the prospective parents must not be able to breed."

I agreed with this, which initially refutes the half-breed theory, then someone mentioned:

"Species like Ligers have been successfully bred, so hybrids are possible between species."

Earlier, it occurred to me that having read a little about Ligers, I think they're generally rejected by both Lions and Tigers - ie - they don't fit in either camp, which got me thinking that a hybrid species is not one that is natural to either parent.

Therefore, perhaps the Aspie = half-breed argument stands.

Taking the profoundly autistic at one extreme, and the offensively neurotypical as the other, it seems to me that neurotypicals cannot instinctively raise an autistic child, without some sort of outside help, in the way that autistic parents could. It also follows, I think, that as likely/unlikely as it may be, an autistic couple could not instinctively raise a neurotypical child as a neurotypical couple could.

In both cases, the childs behaviour would not be as the parents initially expected it to be, and therefore I wonder whether the lines of distinction between species should not be drawn by the mere ability (or not) to produce offspring, but rather by their ability to use their natural parental instincts to raise the child successfully, and at the natural developmental rate, in the environment into which it was born.

I still have not heard of any referenced literature as to what the scientific communities definition of "difference in species is", and I remain interested to hear such, if anyone has knowledge in this area.

Or it is like the fictional races of half-Elves. They are typically shunned from living with the Elves and Elves call them "Half-Humans", but they do not fit in with the Humans, either.

It is not that NT couples cannot raise an autistic child, but that it will be a challenge for them because they do not think in the same way as their child does. They will likely have to get a lot of outside help unless one (or both) has/have studied autism in depth.

I believe that in a species is a group of similar beings that can breed and produce fertile young. A donkey and a horse can breed but they produce sterile young, whereas a dog and a wolf can breed and produce fertile young (i think), so that is what a species is.