Alex's testimony for the IACC meeting!! !

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I'm liveblogging the event on twitter: http://twitter.com/alexplank

You know you're in trouble when NIMH directors are equating genetic orders to POLIO!

Give 'em hell Alex.

someone else took that as an opportunity to make a tasteless comment including the term "iron lung"

well... break a leg. I have to run, but I will check back in when I get back from my errands.

And that in itself is why i've never heard of it...

Alex, I was especially touched by your last two paragraphs. Beautifully written.

I think a child like mine is a gift. I know that I do not face the struggles that parents of more severely affected children do, but the energy and money that seem to go in the wrong direction are difficult to watch. Even when the gift is not obvious, I suspect it truly is there.

I wish you all the luck in the world. Whether or not the powers that be are listening, there is a lot of evidence in my local community that many individuals have acquired the proper understanding. I have hope.

Thank You Alex, it's nice to have someone in "our corner" Good Luck.

But a goodie! And covered by Guns'n'Roses quite faithfully I thought!

Thank you so much Alex.

I feel anger when I see the Autism Speaks videos.

How dare anyone imply that my beautiful sons are diseased.

I won't go to a full scale rant now.

My sons are too young to be aware of Autism Speaks now.

I worry about that when they become older.

I don't want Autism to be history. I want Autism Speaks to be history!

Helen

P.S. Alex Plank for US President!

It's very likely that autism is caused by a disease process in many of the individuals with it, even Professor Attwood will tell you this (it's on his website--he's speaking of Asperger's syndrome however, rather than autism).

There's nothing wrong with having a disorder or a disease, it doesn't make one less of a human, nor should it be ever taken as an insult when used in a clinical context.

I've written an article about what transpired at the meeting:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/article363.html

I don't see the big deal about the whole, killing my daughter and I statement. I'm sure everyone has said they'd like to kill something, themselves, or someone they dislike. It's an ad hominem attack if one is to use such in an argument; you attack the points, not the person in a logical debate.

Hell, I'd have killed myself long ago if it wasn't for my "normal" mother; I had some pretty funky thoughts of killing my peers at school too, none of this is relevant to an argument on the research of autism, unless you can prove I have a bias. But then, one can easily say that the individual who utilized the ad hominem attack was biased too as he/she are inflicted with one of the disorders in question if one is to use the same erroneous logic.

Most people in the autistic community actually found it offensive and harmful to our families. One mother did kill her autistic kid and herself four days after seeing the video. And there has been an increase in murders of autistic children since the comment was made.

The attack on Ms. Singers troubling comments is not ad hominem because the content is being attacked, not the person.

I find it VERY disheartening that the head of NIMH has no concept about what is probably the most important mental health issue of our time.

It's an ad hominem for it's an attack on her character, on her, the words she said could have easily been born out of genuine frustration at the time, a release of her frustration at coping with an autistic child; many children with autism have severe behavioural problems after all. I'm speculating on the reason, but so are you and everyone else. Said mother who killed herself and her daughter obviously had troubles; a video won't make someone kill themselves and their child [unless they have a severe underlying problem, which means it probably would have happened anyway unless she got help]. There could be an increase in the murders of "normal" children since the video was made; it proves nothing.

I wasn't offended by the video in the slightest.

The trouble with Alison Tepper Singer isn't that she had that thought. After all, I assume everyone has pretty despicable thoughts at times. The problems are as follows: 1) she said it within earshot of her daughter. She might think her daughter can't understand, but there's no way she can know that with 100% certainty. 2) she said it on a documentary film. If we wish not to be criticized for our thoughts and feelings we should keep them to ourselves. Saying something publicly makes something fair game for criticism. 3) (perhaps most troubling) it was presented on the documentary as something which should deserve sympathy--for Singer, not her daughter! There wasn't the slightest bit of remorse expressed. In fact, it was taken as only natural that someone with an autistic kid would think that, and say it in the way she does. That's truly horrible to imply, and I've seen several parents express outrage that this woman is somehow made to seem like the "typical autism parent." She's not. I don't see how you can see this as merely an expression of emotion when she said it to a video camera and apparently allowed it to be included in the documentary. That's not something she wrote in her diary, or said to her therapist, or to her best buddy. She put it out publicly and absolutely deserves to be criticized for her own words, just as (say) John McCain or Barack Obama does.

And it wasn't just one autistic child who was murdered shortly after the documentary's release, but several, I believe. Studies have repeatedly shown that when one teenage suicide (or any suicide) is publicized heavily, others follow. Probably those people were severely depressed anyway, but I don't think you can say that the role of "suicide publicity" is inconsequential. For ethical reasons, many newspapers have reviewed the manner in which they report suicides so that they're not contributing to the problem. Autism Speaks and Singer try to garner public sympathy for murderous thoughts directed at autistics, and that is unethical and unacceptable.