New research brings autism screening closer to reality

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Garyww
Discredited by whom? Would you provide a link?

I think your note of the phrase "autistic tendancies" makes it worse for society. If a positive on the screening means the chils will be anywhere from a geek to a LFA then it would definitely mean a positive on most scientifically minded people.

This concerns me.

Probably more autistic than you imagine but like a huge number of people are under the radar which is actually pretty easy to do, was anyways at one time.
And did somebody try to say that Aspies are more prone to be criminals and bombers or did I misread that statement.

It's a meritocracy, where talent can get you really high in that regard but so can hard work. But I know what you are getting at.

No - in a meritocracy everyone is given an equal opportunity to get jobs and so on. This society is anything but.

Maybe I didn't parse my clauses correctly there, but I was saying that hard work will be the way for most but those talented will find their niches.

well, too late on having a significantly worse life, too. Your life might have been significantly better, but I assure you, mine wasn't. I am not 'wishfully thinking' about anything, I have had too many hard knocks living in the word hostile to my kind to think it is going to be any better, at least for me.



You seem to think everyone can afford such testing or even know about such testing. Not all of us Aspies are the 'best and the brightest', you know. Most of us are just barely hanging on.

It's like WP. WP is not the full spectrum of people with AS, it is only those that can afford to have a computer and knowledge to use it and a budget to pay for an internet connection. This is why most of the population here are young. This becomes more and more narrowing of the general population. There are thousands of people out there in the world that don't even know they are AS.

Yes, but this kind of testing would be paid by insurance more than likely - whether public or private.

This would cast a wide net that would ensnare the best and the brightest, the not so best and brightest, and those of us in between. Taking out even half of the best and brightest would cause irreparable harm to future generations.

When my kids were born we were told about the Down Syndrome test. We chose not to do it because we figured we would love and raise a DS baby as much as any other. I am low to middle class and was ignorant of all things DD related...

If the government encorages the testing it will happen. Of course in the US the prolife movement has gained so much power that they are probably opponents to this. I think many of them are sickened by the DS abortion numbers more than most anticurwe aspies..

Still not what a meritocracy is quite about. Its basically a form of socialism.

WHAT?! "Doom us all?!"

If you believe the prophesies of 2012 it won't matter anyway because we'll all be dead before the test is developed.

And if you don't believe in the prophesies of 2012 the test still won't be a big deal because not that many people have health insurance these days. And fewer all the time will have insurance as more and more jobs are lost. So this will be the least of the worries.

I'm not for killing unborn babies but I guess those in power feel something must be done to stop autism. There are so many autistics and aspies in the young generation that the world will go broke trying to support them all since so few end up working as adults.

I'm having trouble keeping up with this Let me begin by shuffling a draft over from another thread, the guy I quoted there being on here as well:

Being mildly affected by AS, I do find those things attractive, albeit out of reach, and experience their reality almost as an NT would. I see how they are a huge part of human life when set against what lower-functioning autistics experience of it. Your final statement ignores the vast scope of realities that human beings experience.

My point here connects with those last three paragraphs of the OP. To begin, with my emphasis:



To me, and I stand to be called out by the author if word reaches her , this says that she's noting how much of NT reality autistic reality misses, and drawing the obvious conclusion: While we autistics may not suffer because of our autism much more than NTs suffer because of their humanity, we also experience less happiness than NTs, and a lower level of fulfilment. Obviously, there's no way of testing this, but to an NT, I feel, his or her life is infinite and complete; it's not just the lens through which the world is approached, as it seems to be for us. Remember, our brains are no smaller than those of NTs; therefore our mental capacity is likely to be just the same, albeit harder to fill.



Here, she's making it clear that parents are concerned with maximising their children's happiness, hence the difficulty she refers to, given how hard we can be to figure out to begin with. Many people also believe (wrongly in my view, since a brain appears after 1 month of pregnancy) that a foetus isn't 'alive' in the usual sense until very late in pregnancy or even at birth, so there wouldn't be any ethical issue remaining in the minds of those who chose terminiation.



I'm in favour of all human beings maximising a sense of reality and meaning in their lives; that's the best that can be expected from this world. And if that means that all parents are forced to treat any foetal autism, so be it. We don't need to justify our existence, because a greater existence, based on 'neurotypicality', is justified for all human beings, based on the magnificent capacity of the human mind-brain to make use of such a rich working base.

I think I'll develop this line of thinking a little:



Well that's just what many NTs must be thinking in relation to us, Kangoogle; just add the word 'social' before 'IQ'! You're just as ignorant as they are when you think that a low IQ prevents a person from understanding when they hear (over and over again) that babies who look like them are often aborted. The fact that it makes it harder to understand just means they've less room to develop arguments based entirely on hurt feelings, to wit:



.

Let battle commence

Last edited by undefineable on 11 Jan 2009, 10:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Hmmm, for whatever reason, when I have something to fight for my life has significantly more meaning. I would actually consider getting into politics if this starts to happen, and I am sure most of the people here would follow suit. An autistic government is an interesting concept as well. It is stuff like this that makes me think "what is the difference between gay pride and autistic pride?" Both are not liked by most of society, and both are very beneficial to the people involved. We are one people, one people composed of many persons. There is no difference between the Rainmans and the Einsteins, the NTs and the ASDers, the blacks and the whites, the gays and the straights. We are one people all sharing this planet and contributing to the greater progression of society as a whole. The man who is stuck in a wheelchair for his entire life only able to make grunting sounds has just as important of a part to play as the researcher that graduates from a top university in his field. The politicians have just as much responsibility to make the right decisions in our human progression as the peoples the represent. We are one people, and whether we are ASDers or not, we must strive to make sure that humanity makes the right choices to further its cause of forward progression into a better future. If we do not stand against the wrong that is testing for autism on an unborn child, who will? If we do not stand up for the rights of those who are yet to come, who will? If we do not make sure society does the right thing, who will? We are the future, we are the past, we are the ones who can make this world what it was meant to be. But how can we do this if we do not stand as one united community, in the face of threats that risk wiping out an entire race of people. Yes, an entire race of people could be wiped out if things like this proceed to occur. This race is the Autistic race, we are just as much our own race with our own minority rights as any other race of men that inhabits this planet. We must stand together and do whatever it takes to ensure we continue to have a place within the society we belong. We may not be the easiest group to integrate into society, but we are just as important as everyone else. We must do whatever it may take to ensure our survival as an equal race amoung men., because we are all one people, each and every one of us who shares life on this planet, and we have no right to take any life from any one who we share this wonderful world with, so why should someone else do that to any member of this global united people?

Anyone notice how they aren't busy creating a test to detect Aspergers in people who are already born? That's because there is no money in diagnosing more and more people because that's more people society might have to provide services to.

I really don't care though because my life sucks because of the Aspergers. I'd let myself be aborted now if it was possible. If they start executing born Aspies I'll be the first to stand in line okay guys.

Well clearly you are being naive here if you question the seriousness. You still have a good few years left - plenty can change either way.

Even if it is a few thousand alive making all the differences here - getting rid of the hold lot of us gets rid of them. We only need one good idea to change the world remember...

There are a lot more out there who will identify with our cause when we go public big time.

I think some of us might be overestimating our contribution to "progress."

I'm not convinced that all that many scientists, artists, and musicians are aspies or otherwise autistic.

But this version of "ethics" reminds me of people saying we shouldn't destroy the lives of aboriginal peoples living in the rainforest because some of the stuff they know about medicinal plants may be useful to us.

I just don't see people as commodities.