Bullying, Ashley X, Eugenics, and One Celebrity Reference
The many sides of autism is the title of the most recent PedMed article about autism; reporter Lidia Wasowicz notes that parents and practitioners alike are starting “to aggressively treat and study the relevance to autism of medical conditions.” Aside from a reference to the Autism Treatment Network which is described on the webpage for Cure Autism Now (CAN), some treatments are somewhat vaguely described.
Regarding those “many sides of autism,” though: Sometimes when I mention that I am writing about autism, I receive a response to the effect of “interesting, but isn’t that too narrow a topic?”. A recent post on Slate’s Human Nature column—-entitled Bully Crap: The certified epidemic of childhood cruelty—suggests the opposite. In the Slate article, William Saletan points out the following:
- further attests to the overuse of the word “epidemic” in regard to the challenges potentially faced by children today (while indicating the seriousness of bullying);
- notes that doctors at a Seattle hospital have admitted that they broke the law (see ABCNews.com) in “treating” a 6-year-old developmentally disabled girl (”Ashley X“) by performing a hysterectomy on her—see also a disability community’s response;
- comments on embryo eugenics in regard to Britain ordering a clinic to weed out embryos with a squint (see Telegraph.co.ul) and also in regard to families of children with Down syndrome advocating against abortion;
- notes that one can now purchase home test kits to predict a child’s gender (on the reliability of such tests, see this post at Genetics and Health).
Slate’s Human Nature discusses all of these from multiple viewpoints, and with a little cynicism (which might be of use in considering one more autism-related topic, whether John Travolta “abuses” his perhaps-autistic son).
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POSTED IN: Disability Rights, Epidemic, Genetics, Health, Legal Issues, Treatment, Weblogs
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