I suppose it makes it seem like you are saying individuals with autism need changed or cured when they are simply different. Obviously, I am not a professional in the field nor do I have autism, so I could be off
I think many people would cure their autism with a single harmless vaccine in some advanced society if they could. It causes a lot of mental turmoil and pain to many. So it depends on what you mean by a “cure”.
If you mean killing autistic people to try and eliminate them from the gene pool well then that’s unethical. It’s also a spectrum and is very hard to draw a line of when autism is “bad enough”.
The politicians pushing the idea of a cure only care about making autistic people less inconvenient to their shitty social system, not about making their lives better.
There are lots of leaps of technology and science over the years that came from autistic people. Curing that could actually see us regressing timewise, due to the alternative thinkers no longer being there.
It is standard for people who are normal to assume that being abnormal in a way that is not obviously beneficial is a bad thing and should be cured if possible.
However, it is also common (although not universal) for people who are different to regard what makes them different as a good thing – because it makes them who they are.
Being deaf seems “clearly” to be a straight disability. It is a lack of ability. But many deaf people enjoy the deaf community and culture and feel that being deaf is simply different and do not want it to be cured – they opposed cochlear implants and other cures.
Autism is even more controversial. Autistic people have trouble interacting with “normal” people but get along well with autistic people. It is not that being autistic makes it difficult for them to get along – it is that being different makes it difficult for them to get along.
You could “cure” all of the normal people by making them autistic and get essentially the same result as “curing” all of the autistic people and making them “normal”.
Off topic slightly, but I’m seeing a lot of people saying “autism is just different and there’s nothing wrong with that.” While I broadly agree, autism is a spectrum. I’ve worked with people so far along the spectrum that they’re non verbal and so violent that their own parents are scared to be alone with them.
Being able to “cure” autism would absolutely be beneficial in those circumstances. The issue is that eugenics is pretty black and white. “Disabled bad, abled good” sort of thing. Spectrums are too complex for that sort of world view.
Eugenics is the removing of “undesirable” or gaining of “desirable” traits through selective reproduction. Historically, it’s associated with Nazis and their treatment of disabled people along with the jews, queer people, etc.
There is a lot of fear that the US could go down a similar route with the way that there are propositions by RFK to send addicts to “wellness farms”. So far, any though of that for autistic people is fear mongering or worst case scenario
It sucks that humans can be such cruel creatures because if there weren’t unethical, vile experiments done on our most vulnerable… I don’t think anyone would consider finding a cure for (severe) autism a bad thing.
People with autism are just as deserving of space in our world as those without it. But, I can’t imagine that parents of children who cannot even complete basic functions without assistance would be opposed to a “miracle” that allowed their child a better quality of life.
Same goes for any other genetic/hereditary/random illness, disorder, mutation, etc. Who wouldn’t want to have a wonderful, long life with their loved ones?
It’s not just about eugenics, its also the way they’re doing it and the implications of an actual cure.
Will a supposed miracle cure work on everyone? Does it only work on specific age groups? Would it be mandatory for people who don’t wish to opt into it? Would it require them to interfere with the embryo/fetus? Ect.
It’s also just bc the current administration is disingenuous, so they can’t be trusted.
They say they will have found the cause of autism with certainty by a certain time frame. Discovering things with proper scientific methods has no such claims.
You “discover” cures, causes, and treatments whenever they are found. You don’t just say, “we’re discovering the source of autism in a few months.” Unless you’re about to push a narrative and are building up your points.
The way they are going about “tackling” autism is bad, more than just finding a proverbial cure or better treatment being bad.
Because autism is just a different way of being. You cannot “cure” autism without fundamentally changing/destroying the person that currently exists.
Not to mention that parents are currently seeking therapies that claim to “cure” autism but actually are just extremely painful and often deadly snake oil systems (or legitimate therapies that have extreme side effects and also can cause death).
it really depends on the situation! there are lots of autistic folks who would love to be neurotypical, and that’s completely fine!
what they mean by saying that it’s «bad», is the fact that most of the times the ones who want to find a cure for autism are neurotypicals holding the goal of eliminating autism, not the goal of helping us, autistic people. very often those people just want for us to suppress who we are (our autistic traits), not to make life easier for us.
sometimes their ways are harmful. sometimes their ways are humiliating. sometimes they’re doing it without our consent.
it’s bad when neurotypicals want for autism to not exist because of their fake compassion or unwillingness to accept someone who’s different. it’s bad when someone wants to make everyone neurotypical by finding a cure, as there are lots of autistics who would like to stay the way they are. but it’s okay if you personally would like to find a cure and be neurotypical!
What’s the point though? At the end of the day your neurotypicality will then find you another group of individuals to ostracize, everything is relative. There will always exist a group that is “autistic”, it is your human nature, drawn to the debauchery like moths to a flame, you will then use that flame to burn those who do not fit your ideal. It’s all the same.
There are people who see autism as a difference more akin to being left handed, or even being gay, in that it does get in the way of functioning with “normal” society. But like, it’s only a problem because the world wasn’t designed for the way you are.
So basically it’s rejecting the idea that the majority is the only correct way of being.
I’m autistic and just don’t understand what can be cured. What part? Would they suddenly have social skills? Sensory sensitivities? I take a mood stabilizer for a different reason but that seemed to help with sensory problems too. Would I think differently?
Aside from the fact that most people with autism are perfectly happy to exist and just want accommodation, autism is not something you can “cure” in an already-living person because it’s hard-coded into your genes. By definition, it can’t be “cured” by any means other than ending the lives of all current and future people who have it.
Speaking as an autistic person who has quite a few struggles despite being “high functioning”, there are therapies, medications, and accessibility devices that can make the more painful/stressful autistic traits less overwhelming. These are what we should be researching, supporting, and making more accessible, not a “cure”.
Because we have been fighting for many many years to help destigmatize and help allistics understand that it is a difference in communication, for the most part, and they need to consider us, too, since we spend so much time considering what allistics need. We deserve to live life, and have jobs, and have friends, and get supports in the way we say we need them. Nothing about us without us. This administration is single handedly wiping out all that work and hard fought gains by talking in the terms they are. It is literally like going back 30 years. There is nothing to “fix” and they are going to use their “cures” to harm us.
Autistic woman with a graduate degree and deep niche knowledge here- there are also benefits to some degree for less “severe” cases, such that eradicating autism completely would be very likely to stifle scientific progress, engineering, innovation, and intelligence work for governments. You can’t tell me that someone who focuses obsessively in their lab for days or stares at satellite photos in Langley all day isn’t on the spectrum. Also notice that Silicon Valley has a very high prevalence of more “severe” autistic children, with parents with high-level tech careers that were likely helped and influenced along by their own autistic traits. There seems to be some evolutionary advantage to having some of the population being “higher functioning” autistic.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of other autistic people who have co-occurring disabilities or communication problems to such an extent that they’ll never be where these innovators are. They should receive the most intervention, but I don’t believe in “curing” autism on a genetic or population level. Too much risk of losing a lot of potential and innovation.
iPhones and Android phones are both mobile phones and they can do roughly the same thing. The difference lay in the “software”, which means that one might be better at some things than the other one and vise versa. This is also true with your typical brain and autistic one.
Autism is not an illness and therefore can’t be “cured”. You are born like this. Your brain is simply working slightly differently than the average person. Many people are actually on the autistic spectrum but just haven’t realised because they can manage life well enough. Actually for some sectors having an autistic brain can be a plus (particularly if the person has developed a special interest, because they will have developed a deep knowledge on that subject).
Autism is only a problem if a person autistic traits cause issues in their every day life. It is also worth understanding that it is quite common to have other conditions at the same time like ADHD for example, which also can make life more tricky.
You can learn to manage some all those negative traits by finding adaptation that works for you. Just like a person with a disability might use certain aids to help them enjoy life to the fullest. Having a diagnosis is really helpful not just for getting the right support for you, but also for letting others know which often results in people being much more understanding of your “quirks”.
personally as an autistic person (undiagnosed because a lot of people in my country doesn’t believe in autism that isn’t nonverbal) i think that it’s kind of like when queerness was considered mental illness – like sure you’re born with that and it makes you different from other people, but how exactly will a cure ‘fix’ your brain? because it doesn’t directly harm you like congenital disorders and as far as i know there’s not really a perfect ‘model’ for brain development, even for neurotypical people
not to mention that most of the times any ‘cure‘ attempted in history is rooted on suppressing marginalized people and abandoning any responsibilities to care for them instead of actually mean well. if we open the door for treating autistic people with undesirable traits like violent, nonverbal, etc. , it will just lead to treating more normal-like ones in no time
while i do think that it would be helpful if there’s some way to cure those traits to help the person themselves, i don’t think that there’s a way to implement that without derailing into forcing all autistic people into it, especially with the current rising trend of the belief X will cause autism, which is equilizing autism to a biologically harmful disease
and i’m not even gonna start about how eugenics is so wrong on human rights level (i mean lebensborn is like one of the most outrageous programme in general but forced sterilizations on the disabled community in a smaller scale is still never a good thing to do)
Because autism can’t be cured, it is a fundamental change in the way a person’s mind works and also incredibly genetic. Autism isn’t a hormone imbalance or a flipped switch that medication or surgery can solve, it’s an entirely different way of functioning. It would be like trying to cure someone of their left handedness or having green eyes. Our options for “curing” it are either to mask and hide it, provide support and help for people with it, or -because it’s genetic- prevent autistic people from being born (that’s where the eugenics come in).
I think the flip side of the coin is that RFK Jr claims there will be an identifiable cause of autism by September. Which will lead to the “cure.” However, very smart people have been studying autism for years and have not yet determined a specific cause. There are multiple theories but no identifiable cause. People are upset (rightfully so in my opinion) because he thinks it will be an easy, breezy solution. Unfortunately, there will likely be many unintended and negative consequences based on his actions, so people are very hesitant and concerned.
Because it’s impossible to cure developmental differences, at best, it’s confusing and unhelpful at describing actual interventions; at worst, it’s obfuscation for more sinister motives.
Imagine saying something like that to someone with outward physical development differences, like limb differences:
“What do you mean you’re going to cure me of not having a hand? Humans can’t magically regrow limbs, so what do you want to do to my arm?”
Maybe there are some limb differences that can benefit from corrective surgery, maybe you can control for things about how a limb develops in utero, but at the end of the day, we either accommodate the bodies and the minds that we have, or certain people can’t participate in society
If they are talking eugenics that involves such techniques as sterilization and culling. Evil.
If they can get a cure/ drug that fixes an individuals condition. Good.
Autism is a range from “slightly quirky” to “full blown disabled and can’t communicate more than a couple of words”. The people in the first camp (rightly) think “so what if I’m different, that should be ok!” And that’s true. But for kids that are completely disabled and will never lead an even close to normal life, there should absolutely be a cure. The problem is that we call it all the same thing, and it is absolutely not even remotely close to the same thing. Most people don’t know how bad autism can actually be, because far more people are in the first camp.
I don’t think I have an exact answer, but reading some of the comments, I want to share an experience my family had. My nephew has autism and is nonverbal. He also has always struggled with being violent. He gets frustrated because he can’t express his needs and he lashes out. Years of therapy, meds, and different methods helped him soooo much. He had his own sensory room and was learning how to express his needs and control himself. But then one day he was running around the house and tripped and hit his head on a magazine rack. Im pretty sure he got a minor concussion. He was mostly okay, but this injury erased all their progress and then some. He was throwing tantrums nearly 24/7, hitting, screaming, breaking stuff. He broke a window and cut his arm up really badly. It was awful. They took him to a clinic to help. (I don’t know exactly what they did but it helped get back some progress). My sil said that she doesn’t have expectations of a miracle, she just wants her old kid back.
I think it is totally okay to want to cure autism in the sense of not wanting kids to suffer (and families to suffer) with kids that are violent. My nephew was hurting himself and others. We want a cure for that. But people don’t want a cure in a way that completely changes autistic people or erases them.
Because if we all start agreeing that the weird kid in class who likes frogs too much should die about it, that kind of leaves the door wide open to just start killing people for whatever
Curing autism (and ADHD) would take away the catch all excuse used by a lot of self-diagnosed – and probably neurotypical – people to avoid taking responsibility for their actions and behaviour.
Autism is who I am, it’s how my brain grew. Wanting to cure my autism is saying you wish I was a different person.
People point out that it is eugenics becuase the medical approach thst is most likely to be used to eliminate autism is identifying it in utero and aborting the pregnancy. It is by definition eugenics.
Because people are brainwashed and dumb. I’m sure there isn’t a single parent of a severely autistic kid or a severely autistic kid that would be opposed to finding out triggers for the disease to prevent it for future generations. But apparently finding a preventative to a disease is seen as Nazi eugenics UNLESS it’s a vaccine. How about this… what if there was a vaccine to prevent autism would you guys still feel the same way?
Autism can produce a very highly intelligent person. Given enough time and therapy they can overcome some of the issues cause by autism and use that intellect to better mankind.
Comments
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I suppose it makes it seem like you are saying individuals with autism need changed or cured when they are simply different. Obviously, I am not a professional in the field nor do I have autism, so I could be off
What exactly is being “cured”?
I think many people would cure their autism with a single harmless vaccine in some advanced society if they could. It causes a lot of mental turmoil and pain to many. So it depends on what you mean by a “cure”.
If you mean killing autistic people to try and eliminate them from the gene pool well then that’s unethical. It’s also a spectrum and is very hard to draw a line of when autism is “bad enough”.
The politicians pushing the idea of a cure only care about making autistic people less inconvenient to their shitty social system, not about making their lives better.
It doesn’t need a “cure”. some people’s brains just work a bit different and that’s ok
How are you going to get anything meaningful done without any engineers or computer scientists?
There are lots of leaps of technology and science over the years that came from autistic people. Curing that could actually see us regressing timewise, due to the alternative thinkers no longer being there.
It is standard for people who are normal to assume that being abnormal in a way that is not obviously beneficial is a bad thing and should be cured if possible.
However, it is also common (although not universal) for people who are different to regard what makes them different as a good thing – because it makes them who they are.
Being deaf seems “clearly” to be a straight disability. It is a lack of ability. But many deaf people enjoy the deaf community and culture and feel that being deaf is simply different and do not want it to be cured – they opposed cochlear implants and other cures.
Autism is even more controversial. Autistic people have trouble interacting with “normal” people but get along well with autistic people. It is not that being autistic makes it difficult for them to get along – it is that being different makes it difficult for them to get along.
You could “cure” all of the normal people by making them autistic and get essentially the same result as “curing” all of the autistic people and making them “normal”.
Because historically, attempts to “cure” a disability have involved executions, torture, and forced sterilizations.
It’s not. There’s millions of people who support it.
Who said that?
RFK pushing the idea has nothing to do with autism.
Because having different way of thinking is actually very beneficial. Wanting everyone to be the exact same just defeats the purpose of life.
Bold of you to post this.
Off topic slightly, but I’m seeing a lot of people saying “autism is just different and there’s nothing wrong with that.” While I broadly agree, autism is a spectrum. I’ve worked with people so far along the spectrum that they’re non verbal and so violent that their own parents are scared to be alone with them.
Being able to “cure” autism would absolutely be beneficial in those circumstances. The issue is that eugenics is pretty black and white. “Disabled bad, abled good” sort of thing. Spectrums are too complex for that sort of world view.
By who?
Eugenics is the removing of “undesirable” or gaining of “desirable” traits through selective reproduction. Historically, it’s associated with Nazis and their treatment of disabled people along with the jews, queer people, etc.
There is a lot of fear that the US could go down a similar route with the way that there are propositions by RFK to send addicts to “wellness farms”. So far, any though of that for autistic people is fear mongering or worst case scenario
I think it’s worth investigating the cause, and it’s not like people aren’t already researching this. What if we find out it could be prevented?
A healthy person is a lost customer to scam healthcare and big pharma
It sucks that humans can be such cruel creatures because if there weren’t unethical, vile experiments done on our most vulnerable… I don’t think anyone would consider finding a cure for (severe) autism a bad thing.
People with autism are just as deserving of space in our world as those without it. But, I can’t imagine that parents of children who cannot even complete basic functions without assistance would be opposed to a “miracle” that allowed their child a better quality of life.
Same goes for any other genetic/hereditary/random illness, disorder, mutation, etc. Who wouldn’t want to have a wonderful, long life with their loved ones?
It’s not just about eugenics, its also the way they’re doing it and the implications of an actual cure.
Will a supposed miracle cure work on everyone? Does it only work on specific age groups? Would it be mandatory for people who don’t wish to opt into it? Would it require them to interfere with the embryo/fetus? Ect.
It’s also just bc the current administration is disingenuous, so they can’t be trusted.
They say they will have found the cause of autism with certainty by a certain time frame. Discovering things with proper scientific methods has no such claims.
You “discover” cures, causes, and treatments whenever they are found. You don’t just say, “we’re discovering the source of autism in a few months.” Unless you’re about to push a narrative and are building up your points.
The way they are going about “tackling” autism is bad, more than just finding a proverbial cure or better treatment being bad.
Because autism is just a different way of being. You cannot “cure” autism without fundamentally changing/destroying the person that currently exists.
Not to mention that parents are currently seeking therapies that claim to “cure” autism but actually are just extremely painful and often deadly snake oil systems (or legitimate therapies that have extreme side effects and also can cause death).
it really depends on the situation! there are lots of autistic folks who would love to be neurotypical, and that’s completely fine!
what they mean by saying that it’s «bad», is the fact that most of the times the ones who want to find a cure for autism are neurotypicals holding the goal of eliminating autism, not the goal of helping us, autistic people. very often those people just want for us to suppress who we are (our autistic traits), not to make life easier for us.
sometimes their ways are harmful. sometimes their ways are humiliating. sometimes they’re doing it without our consent.
it’s bad when neurotypicals want for autism to not exist because of their fake compassion or unwillingness to accept someone who’s different. it’s bad when someone wants to make everyone neurotypical by finding a cure, as there are lots of autistics who would like to stay the way they are. but it’s okay if you personally would like to find a cure and be neurotypical!
What’s the point though? At the end of the day your neurotypicality will then find you another group of individuals to ostracize, everything is relative. There will always exist a group that is “autistic”, it is your human nature, drawn to the debauchery like moths to a flame, you will then use that flame to burn those who do not fit your ideal. It’s all the same.
I think RFK, Jr. is hoping to establish that childhood vaccines cause autism
There are people who see autism as a difference more akin to being left handed, or even being gay, in that it does get in the way of functioning with “normal” society. But like, it’s only a problem because the world wasn’t designed for the way you are.
So basically it’s rejecting the idea that the majority is the only correct way of being.
I’m autistic and just don’t understand what can be cured. What part? Would they suddenly have social skills? Sensory sensitivities? I take a mood stabilizer for a different reason but that seemed to help with sensory problems too. Would I think differently?
Maybe we like being what we are to not need a cure, have you ever thought about that?
How would you feel if busy bodies were out to cure or prevent being born what you are?
Aside from the fact that most people with autism are perfectly happy to exist and just want accommodation, autism is not something you can “cure” in an already-living person because it’s hard-coded into your genes. By definition, it can’t be “cured” by any means other than ending the lives of all current and future people who have it.
Speaking as an autistic person who has quite a few struggles despite being “high functioning”, there are therapies, medications, and accessibility devices that can make the more painful/stressful autistic traits less overwhelming. These are what we should be researching, supporting, and making more accessible, not a “cure”.
Because we have been fighting for many many years to help destigmatize and help allistics understand that it is a difference in communication, for the most part, and they need to consider us, too, since we spend so much time considering what allistics need. We deserve to live life, and have jobs, and have friends, and get supports in the way we say we need them. Nothing about us without us. This administration is single handedly wiping out all that work and hard fought gains by talking in the terms they are. It is literally like going back 30 years. There is nothing to “fix” and they are going to use their “cures” to harm us.
Autistic woman with a graduate degree and deep niche knowledge here- there are also benefits to some degree for less “severe” cases, such that eradicating autism completely would be very likely to stifle scientific progress, engineering, innovation, and intelligence work for governments. You can’t tell me that someone who focuses obsessively in their lab for days or stares at satellite photos in Langley all day isn’t on the spectrum. Also notice that Silicon Valley has a very high prevalence of more “severe” autistic children, with parents with high-level tech careers that were likely helped and influenced along by their own autistic traits. There seems to be some evolutionary advantage to having some of the population being “higher functioning” autistic.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of other autistic people who have co-occurring disabilities or communication problems to such an extent that they’ll never be where these innovators are. They should receive the most intervention, but I don’t believe in “curing” autism on a genetic or population level. Too much risk of losing a lot of potential and innovation.
iPhones and Android phones are both mobile phones and they can do roughly the same thing. The difference lay in the “software”, which means that one might be better at some things than the other one and vise versa. This is also true with your typical brain and autistic one.
Autism is not an illness and therefore can’t be “cured”. You are born like this. Your brain is simply working slightly differently than the average person. Many people are actually on the autistic spectrum but just haven’t realised because they can manage life well enough. Actually for some sectors having an autistic brain can be a plus (particularly if the person has developed a special interest, because they will have developed a deep knowledge on that subject).
Autism is only a problem if a person autistic traits cause issues in their every day life. It is also worth understanding that it is quite common to have other conditions at the same time like ADHD for example, which also can make life more tricky.
You can learn to manage some all those negative traits by finding adaptation that works for you. Just like a person with a disability might use certain aids to help them enjoy life to the fullest. Having a diagnosis is really helpful not just for getting the right support for you, but also for letting others know which often results in people being much more understanding of your “quirks”.
I hope that helps.
personally as an autistic person
(undiagnosed because a lot of people in my country doesn’t believe in autism that isn’t nonverbal)i think that it’s kind of like when queerness was considered mental illness – like sure you’re born with that and it makes you different from other people, but how exactly will a cure ‘fix’ your brain? because it doesn’t directly harm you like congenital disorders and as far as i know there’s not really a perfect ‘model’ for brain development, even for neurotypical peoplenot to mention that most of the times any ‘cure‘ attempted in history is rooted on suppressing marginalized people and abandoning any responsibilities to care for them instead of actually mean well. if we open the door for treating autistic people with undesirable traits like violent, nonverbal, etc. , it will just lead to treating more normal-like ones in no time
while i do think that it would be helpful if there’s some way to cure those traits to help the person themselves, i don’t think that there’s a way to implement that without derailing into forcing all autistic people into it, especially with the current rising trend of the belief X will cause autism, which is equilizing autism to a biologically harmful disease
and i’m not even gonna start about how eugenics is so wrong on human rights level
(i mean lebensborn is like one of the most outrageous programme in general but forced sterilizations on the disabled community in a smaller scale is still never a good thing to do)Because autism can’t be cured, it is a fundamental change in the way a person’s mind works and also incredibly genetic. Autism isn’t a hormone imbalance or a flipped switch that medication or surgery can solve, it’s an entirely different way of functioning. It would be like trying to cure someone of their left handedness or having green eyes. Our options for “curing” it are either to mask and hide it, provide support and help for people with it, or -because it’s genetic- prevent autistic people from being born (that’s where the eugenics come in).
I have autism level 2 or autism with medium support needs. I don’t want to be cured. I want and need help. I enjoy live like it is.
I agree that young children are cured if possible and save.
But that’s hypothetical and not for the first few decades.
I think the flip side of the coin is that RFK Jr claims there will be an identifiable cause of autism by September. Which will lead to the “cure.” However, very smart people have been studying autism for years and have not yet determined a specific cause. There are multiple theories but no identifiable cause. People are upset (rightfully so in my opinion) because he thinks it will be an easy, breezy solution. Unfortunately, there will likely be many unintended and negative consequences based on his actions, so people are very hesitant and concerned.
Wanting a cure isn’t bad. Being an ignorant dick about it like RFK is bad.
Because it’s impossible to cure developmental differences, at best, it’s confusing and unhelpful at describing actual interventions; at worst, it’s obfuscation for more sinister motives.
Imagine saying something like that to someone with outward physical development differences, like limb differences:
“What do you mean you’re going to cure me of not having a hand? Humans can’t magically regrow limbs, so what do you want to do to my arm?”
Maybe there are some limb differences that can benefit from corrective surgery, maybe you can control for things about how a limb develops in utero, but at the end of the day, we either accommodate the bodies and the minds that we have, or certain people can’t participate in society
If they are talking eugenics that involves such techniques as sterilization and culling. Evil.
If they can get a cure/ drug that fixes an individuals condition. Good.
There’s a few different ways to interpret “cure” and given the context of people like RFK it could go in a dark direction real quick.
You should read X-men
Autism is a range from “slightly quirky” to “full blown disabled and can’t communicate more than a couple of words”. The people in the first camp (rightly) think “so what if I’m different, that should be ok!” And that’s true. But for kids that are completely disabled and will never lead an even close to normal life, there should absolutely be a cure. The problem is that we call it all the same thing, and it is absolutely not even remotely close to the same thing. Most people don’t know how bad autism can actually be, because far more people are in the first camp.
I don’t think I have an exact answer, but reading some of the comments, I want to share an experience my family had. My nephew has autism and is nonverbal. He also has always struggled with being violent. He gets frustrated because he can’t express his needs and he lashes out. Years of therapy, meds, and different methods helped him soooo much. He had his own sensory room and was learning how to express his needs and control himself. But then one day he was running around the house and tripped and hit his head on a magazine rack. Im pretty sure he got a minor concussion. He was mostly okay, but this injury erased all their progress and then some. He was throwing tantrums nearly 24/7, hitting, screaming, breaking stuff. He broke a window and cut his arm up really badly. It was awful. They took him to a clinic to help. (I don’t know exactly what they did but it helped get back some progress). My sil said that she doesn’t have expectations of a miracle, she just wants her old kid back.
I think it is totally okay to want to cure autism in the sense of not wanting kids to suffer (and families to suffer) with kids that are violent. My nephew was hurting himself and others. We want a cure for that. But people don’t want a cure in a way that completely changes autistic people or erases them.
Because if we all start agreeing that the weird kid in class who likes frogs too much should die about it, that kind of leaves the door wide open to just start killing people for whatever
looking for a cure for something isn’t eugenics. thinking affected people should be removed from the gene pool is.
Curing autism (and ADHD) would take away the catch all excuse used by a lot of self-diagnosed – and probably neurotypical – people to avoid taking responsibility for their actions and behaviour.
Autism is who I am, it’s how my brain grew. Wanting to cure my autism is saying you wish I was a different person.
People point out that it is eugenics becuase the medical approach thst is most likely to be used to eliminate autism is identifying it in utero and aborting the pregnancy. It is by definition eugenics.
Because people are brainwashed and dumb. I’m sure there isn’t a single parent of a severely autistic kid or a severely autistic kid that would be opposed to finding out triggers for the disease to prevent it for future generations. But apparently finding a preventative to a disease is seen as Nazi eugenics UNLESS it’s a vaccine. How about this… what if there was a vaccine to prevent autism would you guys still feel the same way?
Autism can produce a very highly intelligent person. Given enough time and therapy they can overcome some of the issues cause by autism and use that intellect to better mankind.
Who made that argument?
This is such a strange strawman
Most people would take issue with the statement “We need to work on stopping more people like you from existing”