Why would you want to 'cure' Autism?

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I am 13, and I have Asperger's Syndrome. I would not want to get rid of it. Sure, there are some issues that I have to deal with, but the positive truly does outweigh the negative. I wouldn't want to 'cure' my different way of looking at things, or my aptitude for math, or my very analytic thought processes. I like these positive things. In fact, I see my Asperger's as somewhat of a gift.

I don't actually know if the people trying to 'cure' it want to get rid of it completely, including the positive aspects. Anyone else know what this 'cure' is all about?

What are your thoughts on this?

EDIT:

I have just realized something. If Asperger's is to be cured, it must not be cured before birth. People must have a choice over whether or not they want it cured. If we were to completely eradicate Asperger's, the amount of amazing discoveries will diminish.

Example:

The internet, computers and electricity were invented by Aspies (At least, that's what some think). If Asperger's never existed, we wouldn't have a lot of the things we have now. Please don't flame me if I said something incorrect or stupid in this post.

I dislike the word cure myself too. Cure is something you do for Cancer, or diabetes, you want to get
rid of it. I think applying the word cure to total AS [Autistic Spectrum] is the wrong word to use.

I as a parent dont want to cure my children but help my children. Yes I agree there
are a lot of positive things about AS and those I encourage in my children. There are
some negative too. My middle son is a non-verbal Autistic. This will be a problem for
him in life if we dont improve that part of his AS, in that aspect I would use the word cure.
No matter what kind of way your mind processes information, we all could use a cure in
something we do, so that we can live more happy and productive lives.

Believe me, my sons have cured me more in my thinking that I have them. They
teach me a lot of different wonderful things. And I do the same for them.

It'not so much that that the positive sides outweigh the negative. It is, or so I see it, that in order to survive in a sea in tempest, in order to walk on a tightrope over the abyss, you have to construct a survival raft, an inhabitable little fragile home, like the one where Charlot try to avoids to be eaten by the big man in The Gold Rush. Or to use the metaphor of the tightrope, you have to devote all your intellectual efforts to learn the great difficult science of keeping your equilibrium. You cannot choose to pretend normality because normality is out of your reach, and, somehow, you rightly feel affection for your cobweb home, your fragile raft. Your autarchic and solitary home is your home, and you cannot accept many guests. Your is a life in Mars, and you don't know if Venus, or Saturn, or the Earth is better. For us the "wrong planet" is better.

A cure doesn't make sense for several reasons.

1. It's impossible on any brain older than early infancy. Possibly the prenatal period. That's because autism is in the physical structure of the brain, and the ability to change that would mean we had the ability to change any brain configuration to any other... which is NOT going to be available anytime soon, and will bring huge ethical problems with it when it does.

2. There's more important things than not being disabled, and that includes having your own mind and your own personality. Autism affects both, deeply. It's a part of your identity, whether you hate having it or love it.

3. When you focus on a cure, you take attention away from more practical things like education, therapy, and support at work and in the community. If you're "looking for a cure", you can easily justify thinking of autism as something undesirable to be rejected, and autistics as sitting around waiting until they can be cured to join society. It lets you justify not making any efforts to make a place in the world for autistic people.

4. A diverse society is a stronger one. Weed out anyone with an unusual brain structure, and you get rid of a unique angle from which one might look at a problem. The more perspectives, the better. Autism is one such perspective.

Agreed! How boring life would be living like all the "normal" people.

I don't wish for any cure for autism, either. Autism is not an illness or a disease. I don't want autism to be prevented, or eliminated, either. We have as much of a right to be on the planet, as everybody else. A LFA man that I used to wait for the school bus with, who's doubly incontinent, and non-verbal has as much of a right, to be alive as I do. We all have the right to be alive, and we have a right to refuse a cure.

I can understand wanting to "cure" very low functioning autism, that completely negatively impacts a persons life & completely disables them in every way & leaves their families & parents wondering whats going to become of them once they die, but as for Asperger's Syndrome, & HFA, I don't get it. I think it's wrong to even try to cure it. The world hates differences though, & will do anything to rid the world of any kind.

But does it negatively impact their lives?

A person's quality of life is not dependent on their skill level. It's dependent on their happiness. I know people who need a great deal more assistance than I do, who are also a great deal happier.

The problem that LFAs face isn't that they got a huge dose of autism; it's that the world in general tends to treat them like dirt, and they've often got less ability to fight back than they would have if they had reliable speech. (Depending. Some Aspies are pretty vulnerable and some LFAs have really supportive families and/or don't take crap from anybody.) It's the vulnerability of someone with a severe disability that worries me; but the solution seems to be to protect those people's rights, not to remove the disability. If you say "LFAs are mistreated, so let's cure them for their own protection," then it's kind of like saying, "Blacks are mistreated; we need better skin-bleaching creams."

If you're gonna say "cure LFAs because they're not as good at stuff as Aspies"; then don't you have to use the same logic to say, "Cure Aspies 'cause they're not as good at stuff as NTs"?

If I was in the 'normal' range of people, I would be one of those annoying, loud teenagers who does what is 'cool', and not what is right/intelligent. I personally don't do things that are 'cool', unless they make sense. For instance, it seems to be cool to listen to your music at max volume, but I wouldn't do that because it is just plain stupid, regardless of the fact that it is 'cool'.

I'd give up everything autistic about me in a heartbeat if I could be neurotypical. I'd much rather live a normal life without the quirks of being autistic.

1. I believe that it's possible to be more severely affected by autism (as I am, compared to many here) and be happy, but....

2. I don't think it's easy. I think autism makes it more difficult to be happy, therefore...

3. I think that, should a cure ever be possible (and I don't think a true rewiring of the brain really ever will be, especially for anyone older than maybe 2), it should be left up to the individual to decide whether it's a positive or negative thing. It should not be labeled undesirable for the whole by some members of the group. Some people may, in fact, want a cure.

Some people want to get rid of their AS because they don't like the challenges it brings them and they figure they be more happier and their lives be easier without it. Some are just badly effected by it they want a cure vs the mild ones. But some mild ones want a cure too. I used to want to get rid of mine. But once I started to cope with it, I didn't see the point in a cure.

I love my kinks too much , for me to accept a cure.