Contribute to Autism Speaks

Post Reply New Topic

think the closest we'll be able to do is be able to screen for autism via parents...

so if you and your hubby/wife are going to have a kid; it could be possible to predict whether your child will have autism or not... probably even have some insight to the severity of it.

this whole issue basically breaks down to the same thing as "the pro-choice abortion" thing. i don't like abortion at all, but i honestly can't say what i would do if i got knocked up when i don't want to be prego... and there are special circumstances like rape...

can you honestly say you could continue to try to have a kid if say, you knew there was a 99.99% chance they would be severely autistic... like extremely low IQ and no way to function for his/herself on ANY sort of level? to me, that's a hard call and should be left up to the individual.... just like i think abortion should be

i read a lot of people here dont want a cure.... but there are a lot who do

it's a personal choice of ethics

personally, i just like knowing how this stuff works for the sake of knowing.... like a lot of the nerds i work with

oh i just was refferring to the nerdier aspects... like through what physiological mechanisms autism works through

yes but the list they provide say for clinical trials (which would be your neurologists ect) is completely different than the lists they send to biological research labs... which is what im talking about

edit: and yes, forms ect are different for different grants... but oh the beauty of "cut and paste"... yand i don't know how much tweaking you're accustomed to... but my experience is that labs have a line of experiments they want to conduct and they apply to grants that will support that... i'm sure that things are a bit more homogenous for biological research... sure there's some emphasis differences in background info... but the experiments are still the same... and the background info for bio research is much more bland than whatever you're talking about (clinical trials?)... there's surely nothing racey

i still stand by the statement that you would not be able to distinguish a biological "autism speaks" proposal from a autism research proposal sent to some other grant. labs have their own research agenda too.... they don't limit themselves to PR issues... which is what we're arguing over.

it's a vicious cycle... but if you believe that history is ever as clean as it's written down to be... then we're never going to get anywhere. you have to pick battles... and atm... while i think it's perfectly plausible to hate autism speaks message, you have to realize that it does some good... and that the root of the issue is how the system works....

and i am working on something to increase knowledge on the scietific/public interface and hopefully to generate money for biological research... and wrongplanent as well

i read on these forums so many ideas about how autism works (cause it's the most natural thing... to want to figure it out) that that have no real biological foundation... or are based on concepts that have been misinterpretted or w/e.... ii just wish i had the time to sit down and even just summarize all the seminars and talks that i go to every week that address the most current proposed biological mechanisms for autism...

i just wish that each and everyone of you could come to them and understand them and incorporate that data into your own personal knowledge....

i don't by any means support the message of autism speaks... but if you can't just stomp it out in one fel swoop... you can at least try to "breed" it out... ie- lets get rid of this ill-informed pretense and fill people's heads with REAL knowledge.

yes... sedaka is plotting

Last edited by Sedaka on 10 Apr 2007, 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

...Wait. Do they want to see that since they live with an aspie, they have a psychological disorder? I live with an hyperactivce brother. Can I add that to my disorder list? Fair's only fair, after all.

Actually, he works on biological research. He's never worked clinical trials. I've never worked on one for clinical trials.

Please don't hate me for this, but I'm not really into that "we don't want a cure for autism" or "cure autism" stuff because I'm still learning more about autism and AS.

I'm sorry Sedaka, but I really find it had to decipher what you're saying.

Twice now you've used "w/e" which is an abbreviation I can't recall ever coming across before (other than as "week ending"), and I couldn't work it out from its context. Ah! Is it "whatever"? That's what www.abbreviations.com suggests, along with "Wound of Entry".

Your comment "oh i just was refferring to the nerdier aspects... like through what physiological mechanisms autism works through" meant nothing to me. I didn't think I was being nerdy? I don't understand what the second half is supposed to be saying. I seems to be yet again suggesting that autism is a disease that acts via neurology to produce symptoms.

Another quote: "i read a lot of people here dont want a cure.... but there are a lot who do" does not seem to be borne out by the votes on this thread. I purposefully restrained myself from titling it in a prejudicial fashion.

That was followed by "it's a personal choice of ethics". Yes. I personally choose my ethics... to frown upon eugenics. There are certainly grey areas involved. I support the right of women to choose to terminate pregnancies at any time. I will not support them being frightened into terminations because... red-haired children don't do so well in business... boys shorter than six foot tall don't get on major football teams... autistic people aren't the same as everyone else... or any spurious scare stories.

I feel all burnt out again.

The abortion and eugenics issue is a tough side to the argument against "finding the cause of". I am very much pro-choice, and that specifically means "my choice". When people clamor for prenatal screening for autism, they are not thinking of "early intervention", with speech therapy, sign language and toys. They are intending abortion. Studies show that 90-95% of all Down's Syndrome diagnoses (prenatal) are aborted. I looked it up and found out that women who test postitive for this are shown movies that show how horrible it is (under the guise of genetic counseling?) and are pressured by doctors to abort.
When I was pregnant, we miscalculated the date and I tested postively for Down's Syndrome (or that is, my son did). The doctor's office treated it like an emergency and said I needed a sonogram that very day! I had no idea then, that that's what was going on.

So, this is why I disagree with the "pro-choice" argument. It inflicts heavy prejudice against those who choose to carry to term and thus the resulting child.

Not officially Diagnosed, so I can't go up there and lie about any of this. It would be wrong.

What does lying have to do with it?

If it's not in an official sense, then in all likelihood, given my own track record it's all in my head. Then I would be a fraud.

But the choice to support/nix Autism Speaks is still completely within your rights. You don't have to be an aspie to have an opinion on them. I'm guessing most of their support comes from non-aspie sources anyway.

Well it feels wrong to me. Of course, I never claimed to be a rational human being anyway.

Is that your cat, Radiation? I like it.

I found this picture on the Internet some time ago.


A dark recess you'll never want to go to.


A cat is usually a nice thing to look at. Seemed like a good thing to give as a peace offering. I've been dealing with my inteptitudes and difficulties a long while without realizing what was going on... so I've kinda learned to deal with it a small bit.

i guess i'm just missing your point.... what are these evil "hallmarks" of the autism speaks grants... that would allow you to peg it out of a lineup of any other grant for similar types of research

cause duh- you cant conduct research that's not outlined in your grant... but autism speaks is by far not the only one that uses phrases like "cure" and ect...

point is... grants are sales pitches... you gotta have an angle... but i doubt the autism speaks grants contain any of the negative messages that are expressed in their advertisements to the public.

yes they probably appeal more to labs that are doing research in phenotyping autism/genetics and blah blah blah... but those areas of research shouldn't be punished for being funded to do what they do...