Boycott of book - mom wants to vasectomize son

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People on the autism spectrum are boycotting “To Siri With Love: A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and the Kindness of Machines,” a book written in 2016 by Judith Newman, a mother whose son is on the autism spectrum. In her book, Newman says she wants medical power of attorney when her son, who is currently 16, turns 18 so she can get him a vasectomy

The boycott was started on Thursday by Amythest Schaber, an autistic person who makes Youtube videos and was described in Newman’s book as a “manic pixie dream girl” without consent. The Mighty reached out to Schaber, who declined to comment.

People in the autism community have rallied around Shaber in support of the boycott, criticizing Newman’s views and portrayal of autistic people.

Others have added negative reviews on Amazon, calling the book dangerous, despicable and ableist.

Since the boycott began, Newman said she has received a death threat but stands by what she wrote. She told The Mighty in a statement that she believes much of what is being said is taken out of context.

“I am going to insist Gus has a vasectomy,” Newman said, adding:

The autistic community thinks I want him sterilized because I do not want the DNA of an autistic person to perpetuate. This could not be further from the truth. I want to be a grandmother! What I do not want is my son having a child he could not possibly take care of. This is my big fear. The truth is, I would never do this unless it was reversible.

But in the book, I said I wanted to have the ability to decide on a vasectomy for him if he becomes sexually active at 18, and I make no apologies about that.

According to Samantha Crane, legal director for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, someone who signs a medical power of attorney does not lose the ability to make their own decisions. Medical power of attorney gives the supporter (in this case, Newman) the right to assist in medical decision-making. The only time the supporter would make decisions is in a situation when the individual cannot make them, such as during a loss of consciousness.

“I’m not aware of any state in the U.S. in which it would be legal to use a healthcare power of attorney in the way that this passage appears to be describing,” Crane told The Mighty.

Crane said this doesn’t mean involuntary sterilization doesn’t happen in the U.S.

“In many jurisdictions, court-appointed guardians are still allowed to consent to sterilization procedures without informed consent from a disabled child or adult, based solely on the belief that people with disabilities should not have children,” she said. “This is unacceptable and we support legislation that would protect all people with disabilities from this kind of abuse.”

The U.S. has a dark history of forced sterilization with 31 states previously operating eugenics programs. Between 1933 to 1977, North Carolina sterilized an estimated 7,600 disabled, poor and uneducated people — an offense which the state apologized for in 2002. Despite states acknowledging that these programs are wrong, today some parents still attempt to ask courts as well as internet forums for guidance in regards to sterilizing their children.

“Judith’s words take away her son’s rights to choose for himself and endanger autistic lives everywhere by setting a dangerous standard,” Holmans said. “We must not let this type of behavior become acceptable

Others have added negative reviews on Amazon, calling the book dangerous, despicable and ableist.

I just need to point out that this reviewer is a close friend to Judith (I have seen her on Twitter, check for yourself) and she only came here to buy this book and write good things in order to defend her friend from all of the negative reviews here. Most 5 Star comments here are written by Judith’s close friends, family and paid reviewers.
I suggest looking at the 3-1 star verified reviews as they seem to be the most honest and non-biased.
I did not purchase this book, I borrowed from the library.

Since its release in August, Judith Newman’s To Siri With Love has been greeted with critical acclaim and celebrity endorsements. Newman’s son Gus has autism, and he learned to communicate with others through conversations with Apple’s personal assistant.

But the memoir, which Jon Stewart called “beautifully honest and illuminating,” has a lot of critics too—namely, other people with autism.

author who identifies as #ActualAutistic in her Twitter bio, laid out her problems with To Siri With Love in a long tweetstorm.

“Picture what would happen if someone distributed a sheet of paper with private information about you on it,” she writes. “Your porn habits. Discussion of bathroom habits. There’s even a statement about the Benny Hill song (“Yakety Sax“) playing during you having sex—but only IF you have sex, that is.”

Change that sheet of paper to a New York Times bestselling book and the “someone” to your mother and you have some idea of Gus’ predicament, Porter wrote.

Newman told Observer she wants medical power of attorney for her son so she can make appointments and explain his symptoms to doctors. She does not, however, plan to have him sterilized.

“I am much less worried now and hoping to be a grandmother someday,” she said. “That’s a result of my son’s growth and my own.”

Newman also said the revelations about her son’s personal life had been blown out of proportion. She said the book includes a “funny potty training anecdote” from when Gus was three years old. The porn joke referenced an incident when Gus’ twin brother looked at his web history and said it was weird he didn’t watch videos with “sexy Asian ladies.”

While Newman’s stories are meant to be humorous, one of the hallmarks of people with autism is that they think literally and have difficulty understanding jokes. Newman knew this and wrote it that way on purpose.

“This book really wasn’t written for an autistic audience,” she said. “It was written for parents, neighbors, people who may love and hopefully will work with someone who is on the spectrum.”

But autistic readers like Rhywiol say Newman isn’t giving them enough credit.

You could put that discussion out, lately we saw several threads telling autistics shouldn't have children and autistics cant (be) parent.
But offence will be taken elsewhere.

Just don't hide, errr boycot, what should be seen, it's a narratif thats prominent somewhat.

The title I choose for this thread might be misleading. WP severely limits the amount of characters one can use for a title of a thread. I would have preferred a title like “Boycott organised against book advocating vasectomy option for son”

Boycotts in this era is a problematic tactic because it gets you associated SJW’s and the anti free speech phenomenon. Which is ironic because boycotting is a form of speech. Advocating a boycott is not the same as advacating the publisher stop printing the book.

If you want to boycott it, then boycott it. Ignore the anti-SJW crowd, I generally associate them with the alt-right. I would be in favour of a boycott especially if the book advocates for giving her son a vasectomy against his will. I see though that John Elder Robison gave it a positive review saying we should understand the points of view from both sides:

https://www.amazon.com/Siri-Love-Autistic-Kindness-Machines/product-reviews/1538419912/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_acr_sr?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews

I would have welcomed being sterilized at age 18

By the way, Amethyst really IS a manic pixie dream girl. I've seen her clips, and they always emphasise the perceived positive aspects to having autism. It's almost as though there could not possibly be anything wrong about this condition. Truly baffling.