how many would abort if you could test for autism in womb

Post Reply New Topic

You have your opinions, and i have mine.

Never ever would I do that. I already suspect my future child/children might be autistic as I have aspergers and especially if in the future I would have kids with another aspie which is very possible and this doesn't concern me at all. Since I have it I will make sure to find out my future kids diagnose as soon as possible (as I got mine so late and I think getting it as a child would've helped a lot in school) and be as supportive as I possibly can and I believe I would be able to lend a lot of support, understanding and coping mechanisms as well. Everyone has a right to live.

That's the way I look at it. If such technology did exist and it says my unborn baby is autistic, I would choose abortion, for the baby's sake. I've suffered enough with my sh***y AS, I wouldn't want to watch my own child suffer too. For most autistics, the world is a loud, cruel, unpredictable place built for neurotypicals, and it doesn't matter how good of a parent I am, there are still things that could happen to my autistic child that I can't control, like how the child fits in at school or whether or not she will be bullied, etc.
Ok having an autistic child might sound like fun and games to a parent on the spectrum, but it isn't. Autism is like wildfire, if one person in a family has it, it affects the other people without it. I've often read about, or even met in real life, autistic people whose NT parents look naturally tired all the time from raising their autistic kid(s), and the NT siblings seem to develop mental health issues as they get older, like depression. I remember a girl at school who had a severely autistic brother (he was low-functioning, non-verbal and had mental retardation). And the girl seemed emotionally distressed by it. She often cried at school, even as a teenager, and just seemed very sensitive but also angry in some ways (although she was a good student).

I would just want my kid to be normal. I wouldn't want my kid to have ASD or ADHD or Downs or anything like that what might make her stand out from the other children or be developmentally delayed in some way that would make life a challenge for them socially or intellectually. I wasn't an easy child to bring up. And yes I know NT children can have challenging behaviour - I've watched enough Supernanny to believe that - but normally a young NT child can be taught better behaviour by certain boundaries and discipline, and the kids on Supernanny (the episodes that I have watched) usually have friends and no learning delays in school, they're just little brats for their mothers at home. But for NT kids with challenging behaviour there are usually tips on how to deal with it, but an autistic child is more challenging to teach certain boundaries. Some parents literally have to give the autistic child what he wants otherwise there will be an ever-lasting meltdown and it might feel like child abuse if you don't give in to him. But an NT child can be taught the word "no" until they learn that they cannot get their way. But with an autistic child, basically everything has to revolve around them in order to keep them happy, and all that extra work sounds really stressful. I'm not sure what discipline is like with children with other disabilities like Downs syndrome, but I do know that autism is a very challenging thing to handle.

Great, as soon as I throw in a reply the thread dies.

^^you spoke the truth

Truth =/= self hate

I don't get it.

This may be another case of my thoughts not translating well, if you don't get what I'm saying, it's probably best to ignore it.