A cure for FUTURE autism

Post Reply New Topic

No. I disagree with the following practices:

1. Selective Abortion Based on Parents' Desires - I think that selective abortion should be allowed only for conditions that are obviously extremely painful for the affected individual and cannot be treated effectively. Even then, it's an ethical gray area, but I think one could make a case for it. When selective abortion is motivated more by the parents' desire for a "prefect" child than concern for the quality of life the child might have, it is a form of eugenics, which should be discouraged.

2. Arguably Unnecessary Modification of an Individual Without Their Informed Consent - IMO, no one should be medicated or operated upon without their fully informed consent unless it is necessary to save their life or preserve their quality of life. Since no one can say what quality of life an autistic person will experience, it would be wrong to do anything to a fetus, infant or child to prevent autism.

Many of the supporters of the “cure” are the parents and friends of autistic people, not the autistic ones themselves. For this reason, I criticize the cure theory as being forced upon autistics by a neural typical society that only wishes to have others conform to it instead of accepting people’s differences.

As someone who has not been diagnosed with autism or AS, I don't believe that I have any right to decide whether another human being, alive or unborn, should be forced to change because they're not like me.

When I was younger, I would get so angry that my younger AS brother wasn't "normal". But as I grew older I began to celebrate his differences, not criticize them. I now believe that different people add to the richness and diversity of the human species.

I know that my brother is the only brother I would ever want, and I wouldn't change him at all.