How far would you go if a pre-natal test for Autism emerged?

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.. uh how exactly will this influence "our" lives?

It (a) devalues them, (b) means that there are less of us and (c) means that there is no incentive to actually improve society for us. So quite an effect really.

This brings me back to the second question I asked. If it's your body and your baby and somebody wants to test 'you' for your suitablity for future childbearing and 'your' suitablity for being in society then what. Testing the unborn is just part of the test as it will be a genetic test which includes both parties and the results go into an official record. This isn't at all an issue about abortion or even autism. It's about individual rights.

I agree the poll is missing a few options. I would not protest against such a development.

More to the point...

Since I've received the diagnoses of AS, I've had some concerns over the prospect of having a child with low functioning Autism. High functioning or AS I have no qualms about - If anything I would see it as a positive in many respects over mothering a neurotypical child. However, I would have problems with having a LFA child as much as I would one with any severely debilitating mental or physical condition. I would have neither the capacity to care for such a child and possibly have difficulty bonding if he or she were to have severe intellectual disabilities (although I have the same concerns in regards to a maternal instincts with a 'fully functioning' offspring). Nor would I want to bring someone into this world to suffer because of a disability or society's treatment of them.

If only a pre-natal test could determine the severity of Autism. A dilemma indeed.

(a)I'm pretty sure that no matter how many babies are killed, my life is still just as valuable.(b)So? How does that affect me?(c)Why should society improve for 'us'? I think they're doing fine on their own.



my life = the same as it always was

(a) Clearly not, if the country / whoever decides that testing for Autism is legal (with the obvious results) then its going to lead to people legally aborting us. Just look at what has happened with Downs and so on.
(b) Next time an issue comes along that we might need numbers for - we have less of a chance of getting our own way. For example on healthcare, education (the two basic services).
(c) Because at some point there will be a lot more of us.

If I don't feel like having a baby, for whatever reason, my rights supercede yours.

I wouldn't abort an autistic fetus, but I wouldn't stop someone from doing it.

And so far research has shown that even low functioning autistics actually do have a lreal ife but it's all inside and in no way indicates that they are 'suffering horribly every day'. It's the parents that are suffering and then reading into their children their own state of being.
In the end it all comes down to age trumping almost everything. The oldest decides what is to happen to the youngest.

if i find someone willing to take care of my cats in the event i go to jail for breaking the law, i'll switch my vote from the first option to the second.

Assuming you can get a doctor that can do it.

That was very funny.

What do you think I'm trying to do, start a Boy Scout troop? I've been trying to incite an insurrection on this board for the past two years. If it ever comes to war, trust me, with our combined power we'd be like Lelouch Lamperouge on brain steroids. Just because we can't use some mystic power to force people to see our way doesn't mean we can't force them to see our way anyways! Most people will change their philosophy in a heartbeat with a gun pointed at their head. And for those who don't, well no one will miss them...

I'm struck by the first-world consciousness of this discussion.

Please consider that the majority of women in the third world do not have access to health care, to pre-natal care, to costly pre-natal testing, or to safe and legal abortion. Therefore, these women will continue to have whatever babies they conceive, autistic or otherwise, just as our beloved ancestors did.

Barring some major act of goodwill, such as the world has never seen in all its sorry history, this situation will not change, and therefore autistic people will not be exterminated from the worldwide gene pool. If you think the continued existence of autistic people depends on the anger and activism of people in the first-world, I suggest you go to the library and acquaint yourselves with how other people live on this planet.

Meanwhile, while we are having this friendly discussion, women and children in the third world die every hour for lack of decent food, water, and medicine.

Perhaps we should turn our attention to them. After all, they are already here.

HA!

mee too.

But I believe Gil Scott Heron, and the revolution was not televised.

Merle

I support any test being available, but I think the results would be sad. I can't decide whether I'm pro-choice or pro-life - I have a lot of issues with both sides. I think way too many people are aborting kids who may or may not have some form of disability - people even abort babies with cleft palates now. It's one thing to abort when the child has an awful disability or disfigurement that will really prevent them from having a good life. However, if I knew my kid was missing an arm or had a form of dwarfism I would not abort - yeah, life may be harder, but people with those conditions will live independently, and most likely have families and good lives. I have an issue with new tests coming out - pretty soon we'll probably be able to identify ADD and various autistic disorders, and then what? So many parents would justify that having a kid with these difficulties would be cruel to the child and abort, and I don't think that's fair. That could go so far, with parents being seen as cruel or crazy for not aborting fetuses with even mild disabilities. What scares me more is if there is a test that identifies autistic tendencies, it probably would not specify the degree. If I knew I would have a severely autistic child that did nothing but sit in a corner, screaming all day with no hope of a good life, I would not have it. And that is the image most parents would get when told their kid mght be autistic. But what if it turns out they have mild tendencies, as I do? That's a scary thought to think that people like me could be abored.

I think a lot of people are automatically against testing and abortion of autistic embryos because they see themselves as that aborted embryo, rather than looking at things in a more objective way. Overall my moral system is one of trying to reduce suffering. If this test helps reduce suffering (and I don't mean necessarily just that of the autistics born, but of their parents also), then I don't see a major problem with it. I also object to people suggesting that after having the test doctors will urge mothers to abort - the facts should be laid clear and the mother can decide herself and the doctor should not be judgemental, but supportive of either decision. If parents think that they would not be capable of caring adequately for a severely autistic child, then perhaps they won't make good parents for that child anyway. I know when I was younger I would have had a huge problem if I had had a severely disabled child, such that it would have caused both of us a huge amount of suffering. Now I am older I have more of a capacity to care for such a child, so I probably wouldnt abort for a non lethal condition.

In any case, autism will not be wiped out - I imagine that the genes responsible are so closely entwined with those that determine intelligence and other positive personality traits that they can never be separated (apart perhaps from a few versions of autism that might be highly heritable and invariably low functioning).