An ‘autism free’ world?
The President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, called on researchers to work “with a mission of making humanity autism free,” as reported in the September 14th The Hindu. The President delivered his remarks at an inaugural conference entitled “Unravelling Autism: Causes, Diagnostics, Interventions,” that was organized by Tamana, an NGO (non-governmental organization) “for the mentally challenged and autistic” and by the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum.
Among the research areas suggested by Mr. Kalam were “special psychological packages based on experience of mothers, psychologists and care givers to autistic patients should be evolved.” I am not entirely clear what is meant by such “psychological packages”: Are specific psychological profiles of autistic individuals—or of their mothers and care givers—to be developed? Or is this a reference to specific psychological treatments, otherwise unspecified?
I am also not sure that “making humanity autism free” is a “mission” that we humans ought to embark on. Rather, it seems that such a mission would mean a lessening of human diversity and neurological difference; that it could indeed be a crime against humanity by humanity itself.
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POSTED IN: Genetics, Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Science, Stereotypes, Technology, Treatment, Uncategorized
8 opinions for An ‘autism free’ world?
Daisy
Sep 13, 2006 at 5:12 pm
In a wonderfully diverse world, it would be wonderful if people were to become accepting and understanding of autism as they are of other disabilities, instead of trying to “rid the world” of it.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Sep 13, 2006 at 5:13 pm
I can’t imagine Charlie without autism—-an ‘autism-free world’ would be tantamount to one without Charlie, for me.
Praetyre
Sep 25, 2007 at 4:57 am
Autism is a disorder. It’s not like homosexuality or blackness, it’s an out and out disorder and is classified as such by the medical community. An autism free world, where all autistics are cured, would be a better place.
Cliff
Sep 25, 2007 at 7:37 am
No, it’s a condition like homosexuality and blackness, it’s most certainly not well classified and thus a list of criteria must be used. An autism free world would not exist without very extreme measures, because it would require eliminating all evidence of property of traits (even those with essentially more/less values, such as “displays a lack of social interest” etc.).
In fact, it’s integral to who I am as a moral being, as a thinker, and as a person, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My thinking is different for those qualities and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve posted more extensively on another post than I have here, on “The Cure Question”, and I don’t have time to repeat all the important points here.
Cliff
Cliff
Sep 25, 2007 at 7:49 am
There are some things I don’t think I mention I will now, though, in regards to the post itself.
I was not made happy by “the mentally challenged and autistic”, as if they were synonyms or very similar. I am not, as far as I know, anything similar to being mentally challenged whatsoever.
As I stated in the post, autism is defined by criteria that have basic descriptions of behavior. If we are to completely eliminate autism, we must make it such that none of these descriptions can apply to a person anymore. And when a criteria includes “lacks social interaction skills”, a social faux pas would lead to being completely undesirable. After all, the behavior is, in a small way, autistic. Do we need to be so picky about differences in humanity?
Even if it was possible to make all human interaction skills identical, it’d be changing the face of humanity. And, heck, people would be far more boring changed like that. Even eliminating autism is to eliminate another kind of thinking and understanding of the world. If you would suggest that autistic thinking is “wrong”, please give me a call, because I’d like to talk to someone of that belief (not in an intimidating way; I just want to know more about perspectives and feelings regarding autism and autistic thinking).
Cliff
Bonnie Ventura
Sep 25, 2007 at 9:26 am
Praetyre: Homosexuality was classified as a disorder by the medical community until 1973.
Go back a bit farther in history, and you’ll find doctors who wrote about “negritude” as a physical and mental defect and described a disorder called “drapetomania,” which was a supposedly irrational desire for freedom among mentally maladjusted African-American slaves.
Hitler’s gang of Nazi doctors busily cooked up large amounts of “scientific” evidence that Jews were disordered in various ways.
The medical profession insisted for many years that women were too mentally and physically fragile to attempt such onerous tasks as voting and holding jobs.
If you look at any widespread prejudice in history, you’ll find that the weight of medical opinion was on its side at some point.
Casdok
Sep 25, 2007 at 10:25 am
The world would be so boring without autism.
And ‘if’ people like Einstein are on the spectrum, what would happen to progress?
no_way_out
Sep 25, 2007 at 12:17 pm
There already is a cure for autism & asperger’s syndrome: death. As in encouraging assisted suicide & ‘euthanasia’ for autistics as well as developing prenatal testing so that mothers of autistics can be urged to accept abortion of their defective offspring, as is done now for Down’s Syndrome.
Some mothers of (non-aborted) Down’s Syndrome kids report a certain degree of hostility from others since they could have avoided giving birth to a ‘burden to society’, and I suppose the same will happen when/if prenatal autism testing is developed.
The sad part is it doesn’t take that much to help an autistic (or someone with Down’s) to lead a productive and potentially happy life. But that would require the kind of mercy that doesn’t have ‘killing’ as its second word.
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