Neurodiversity vs. pro-cure: general thoughts?

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I just posted about this on my blog, but I figured I'd post here too...


I've just started a paper in school about the neurodiversity and pro-cure movements, and I was wondering what everyone's general opinions are about both sides of the argument! I know that's the "hot question" in the autism community these days, but I'd love to hear what people have to say, no matter how heated it might be.

Also, if anyone has some good links to articles/websites/anything about either side of the issue, I'd be eternally grateful!

Feel free to respond on my blog as well (http://onefootonthespectrum.wordpress.com/), because I might be directing my teacher towards my blog comments when I turn in the paper

As a youth, I would have given anything to be cured, but as a mostly self-actualized adult, I am grateful that was not possible. Therefore, I do not think that parents (who would, I assume, take a cure most of the time) should ever have that happen, if the future should hold such a thing.

It's good to be different. Now that I'm established in my professional life, I am respected for my alternate perspectives, without anyone knowing my diagnosis, and I'm just considered quiet and eccentric by most. It's an advantage; instead of struggling in the pack, I am judged solely by my merits. I cannot say the same for my colleagues, sadly.

I don't belive in a cure. I don't see autism, or AS as a disease, or an illness. You can't cure something that's not a disease, or an illness. I'm not sick, so I don't need to be cured. I'm not damaged goods.

Well if you don't see autism as an illness, then what is it? Are things like for example Downs syndrome not illnesses or do you have the same views on that?

If there was a pill I could take that made me outgoing and confident I would not hesitate to drop it down my throat every day I wake up for the rest of my life.

Autism isn't a disease, it does not need a cure. Prenatal testing for anything stinks of an Aryan race, but in terms of autism, it's even worse. We essensially have a different way of thinking, not cancer. Yes, I know the whole counter-argument of how low-functioning people have more than that, but it's essensially the same condition, and even if it wasen't I still don't believe it's up to us to decide if they should be forced into a stupid "cure", or worse be prevented from ever being born due to horrible prenatal testing research.

Another word on the whole low-functioning thing, though: a blanket assumption that all LFAs are diseased and need curing is ignorant of the diversity of the autism spectrum. Someone with LFA could still be a talented writer, for example, and I use that example because I know there is someone with LFA who does write novels (what's her name again?). Assumptions covering everyone on any part of the autism spectrum are stupid because the symptoms vary at every level.

All we know, some strains of autism might actually be caused by incorporated viral DNA.
And for all the general public knows, autism is a disabilitating condition which causes people to not be able to lead an average life, or if so, with a lot more difficulty. When it's not one's own life, one's own personality and personal integrity that's targeted with this, most people will think it should be a gift from heaven to have somebody else not suffer the hardships that come with not being able to lead an average life.
Now, any person who actually is living a life with the specialized sets of skills and weaknesses that be found if autism will have built up an identity that includes this condition. It's different from somebody who got a disease or disability later in life, because for those, the condition is an intruder that attacks their personal integrity.
It is not helpful to assume that being more demanding for being understood will change anything when the other person can not relate.


I personally don't think neurodiversity and pro-cure have to be opposed to each other. If I don't forget it I will write down why I think so.

People who are so-called 'lower functioning' are actually on average happier than those who are 'higher functioning'.
That argument rests upon the belief that any way of living that is perceived as 'less' than your own will immediately be seen as a 'lower' way of living.
Of course not all people think this.

Neurodiversity fan here.

I spent most of my life without even knowing what AS was, but I've felt since my mid-20s that one of the nastiest things about the human race is that it tends to see groups who are different as being in some way inferior. So the pro-diversity philosophy became a mainstay of my social and political way of thinking. A couple of years ago I heard on the radio about a group of Aspies who were asking to be accepted for what they were, instead of being pitied or seen as inpaired, and even though I had no idea at the time that I might turn out to be one of them, I instantly felt that I was on their side. The diversity thing is relevent not just to Aspies but to any group of people who are different. The rule of thumb is quite simple - if they're doing no harm, accept and respect them as they are. Even capitalists would be acceptable to me (I personally detest capitalism) - if they would jst stop trying to ram their system down the throats of people who don't want anything to do with it, I wouldn't hesitate to defend their right to practice their methods on consenting adults.

Either way, I don't really care... as long as it isn't forced, as I personally would not want a cure. But I cannot speak for everyone, and acknowledge that many might really be just miserable and want that cure.

If it ever comes about, I hope for only one thing... for the option, and for those who would be the ones it was offered to, to be able to choose "yes" or "no" in some way.

Last edited by anxiety25 on 15 Mar 2010, 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm on the side of neurodiversity. The idea that such a difference in the neural network can be "cured" is absurd, and the idea that it should is just intolerant.

I'd rather be a living autistic, than an abortion statistic.

I notice few people here are concerned about parent choice ... surely it is a good thing to pre-screen fetuses for any genetic aberrations and give the parent(s) a choice if they want to deal with that or not ....

We need more people with disabilities in the world.

Lol, that's an excellent quote! *high five*

Only somebody with no empathy for others' well-being would say that.