Todays Headline online CNN (sigh)

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Mom considered killing autistic son

http://www.cnn.com/

Tian Huiping was so devastated when her son was diagnosed with autism she considered poisoning him and killing herself. Instead, she opened the only school in China for autistic children. full story
'As a mother, I felt so much pain'
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Dont they think AUTISTIC people read these things? Oh, that's right, they only believe the stereotypes. . .
Merle

though the parents do have opinions to and that one is very common,mum was like her,although aimed the hate at the difficulties and behaviors not the label itself,tried to get am put in childrens homes from toddler age as she/dad couldn't cope.
Its fair enough if parents have those thoughts,because they were expecting something completely different so they've got to be allowed to grow in awareness to.

there was a lady here who killed herself and her autistic son not long ago,she jumped off a really high bridge with him,she struggled to get any support and got depression.

Am like how that lady opened a school after wanting death,it shows that no matter how bad it gets,something good can come out of it.

at least her reason for not killing the kid wasn't just because she had a normal kid. The fact that she created poison however is pretty scary.

must have missread that bit,thought she only had thought about it.

it is good it didnt happen,and something great [for many autistics] has come out of it,even better if it starts a increase in support and awareness over there.

think of how many it DOES happen to, though, where there is no happy ending, at least for the child.

My cousins took me out on the lake when I was 8, tossed me over and rowed back to shore. When I finally swum to another part of the shore ( I was frightened of them!) and my parents came looking for me, they told my folks they were just 'teaching me how to swim.' However, I know my struggle and the quarter mile to shore. I knew, even then, what was happening.

Merle

On the downside she considered killing her autistic child.

On the upside, she ended up opening the only school in China for children with autism. More positive than negative.

It's really not abnormal for parents to consider killing disabled children; thankfully because the benefits of keeping a disabled child are greater than not doing so, the majority of parents don't.

Everytime I turn on CNN, there's always some story about autism. Is this the new popular thing?

The CNN article can be hard to interpret because there are radically different worldviews going on here. In America, when a mom contemplates killing her child with autism it is because either or both, she is having such a hard time she wants the misery to go away, or she is so worried about the future of the child and she feels hopeless about it.
I lived in Japan for four years and saw, unfortunately, this happen twice on the base. What is going on in the Japanese or Chinese or Korean mother's mind is something different. When the husband divorces the wife, the despondant wife will plan to kill herself and because she loves her children and cannot leave them orphans in a cruel world she will make sure to kill them first or simultaneously with herself.

I think that CNN could have made the headline a lot less grim, by saying something more positive about the mother opening up the school, but alas, drama sells.

I'm usually the last person that would empathize with anyone who admitted having thoughts about killing their disabled child, especially if the reason was because the child is disabled. However, we're not talking about America, where if you don't like something you can advocate, and get laws passed, ect... There's options here that just aren't there in China, especially for women. Here if a mother were to contemplate such an action it would be more than likely out of self-pity, because her child interrupted her status quo. In a country like China it would be terrifying to think of what might happen to your child when you were no longer around to care for them, and let's face it, that scenario is going to happen some day. People with autism there aren't allowed in public schools, and aren't looked on with very much humanity at all. I'm not saying what the mother contemplated was right, but I think I can see her POV. I very much admire that lady for overcoming so many obstacles, and making such a positive difference in a place that really needs it.

That is horrible! When most of us speak of dysfunctional families it's not about homicidal cousins. I'm sorry that you had to go through that. It makes my family quabbles seem insignificant.

Yes, I can see how articles like this upset, but they know the entire world will read these articles and since it's a free soceity, they'll print them.

Infanticide has been a common practice in China for generations. China has won countless awards for population control because of this dark practice nobody talks about. So, it is not suprising to hear a Chinese woman contemplating killing her child. Even if it's for different reasons.

I don't want to condemn this woman. She turned what she saw as tragedy into something that's helping others. I have not walked a mile in her shoes...

Face it, they hate us. I once punched someone for thinking I had AS is funny. He didn't fight back, I was suspended, it felt so great.

It's one thing to think such things (I mean, hey, when someone's desperate, they think crazy things). But there are some subjects which I think should REMAIN taboo to talk about, and one of those is admitting to having wanted to kill your autistic child. Because, even if you don't mean it to, that is essentially giving other parents the permission to think-- and in extreme cases, even do-- the same thing.

The human brain is suggestible, be it violence in video games or parents coming out and admitting having at one time wanted to kill their child because s/he is autistic.

I agree with Merle's concerns - but consider this. China is a different culture, and reactions are different and scary within itself in some cases.

what is the difference between legal abortion and killing girl babies in China? Culture?

Merle

I think about killing myself every other second; big deal.