Interview with Peter Bell of Autism Speaks

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B.S. There is no evidence of plans for any of those.

Only looking for genetic markes associated with autism, which, yes, could, with prenatal testing, be used to choose an abortion, but autism is NOT genetic, and unborn children do not have autism.

Yes, the is a genetic component to autism. But it's not a simple have this gene, you have autism thing. It's an interaction of genes and environmental. There will never, ever, be an abortion of a baby with autism, because unborn children can't have autism.

Yes, the idea of abortion of babies with genes associated with autism is appalling. I really don't think that's something that's going to happen, because autism is too complex. And autism will, never, ever be able to be detected in the womb, because it's not a genetic disease. It's a complex syndrome where genes are a factor, but only one factor. And it's also, in part, a choice. A choice of the person to use one type of thinking instead of another.

I noticed you used the word "never" and "I don't think". Genes DO play a large part and They HAVE identified genetic markers already in their tissue banks.
Maybe you need to revise what you think or what you believe will "never" happen.

rossc, I am not going to say that the fear is totally unfounded. I am going to say it is unproductive. An important difference.

Anger that results in conflict instead of change is destructive energy. What is needed are positive forces for understanding.

Do I see use for genetic information that does not involve genocide? Actually, yes, I DO. As a parent, it would be helpful to know which traits, of those my son would wish to mitigate, can be altered and which are hard wired. It would be useful to know exactly how and why a condition that made my husband and father a little different but not much more has created real handicaps for son. I would like to know if environmental factors did come into play on those co-morbids and extremes so that future generations of children carry less issues. He cannot write - I mean really, cannot write. Sure, he is learning to keyboard effectively, but he will quickly tell you that it is far from an all-encompassing answer, and this is a part of himself he would happily "cure" - provided he gets to keep all his unique thinking and creativity, of course. So .... was that just one little gene in the mix, or environmental, or what? OT couldn't improve it much; is there anything else we could do? The thing is, no one knows.

And I do hope (yes, hope, I don't know if it would help) that if more parents understood the multitude of genes involved, and how the unique combinations could mean that even in a family with no obvious AS history, a full blown autie could be born, they might be less inclined to search for scapegoats like vaccines and other theories with a negative impact on their kids and society.

I refused an amnio when I was pregnant because I knew there was nothing the test could tell me that I would act on. My one question to the doctor was a simple, "is there anything we could do with the information besides decide to terminate?" Not much. Test refused. Many many women make that same choice every day. Others ... they either don't have enough information to ask that basic question, or do they understand what the test is about and they need to lose their fear. It is amazing how many women never gave thought to what they would do with the information; the test is recommended after a certain age, so they take it. For the rest, it is fear that drives them to take the test and find out. You won't reduce that fear with anger or shouting. It is a long, slow process. And, yes, I am fully aware that much of the current fear can be traced straight back to Autism Speaks, and I will never forgive them for that damage.

I did say there is a genetic compoment. As for "large", well, that's too subjective to bother debating. Significant. But I stand by what I said.



I like that. Well said, and I agree.

This is my take on it. I think that when people speak of wanting a cure for Autism, they are talking about the ones with Autism who are greatly disabled by it. And I don't think they're wanting to take away a persons character or personality... they just want the disabling, painful things taken away. I don't believe their desires for a cure are selfish... I think they genuinely want people to live as full a productive life as they can and they feel bad for those that can't do that.

I think that Peter Bell is sincere in what he's saying and I believe that he loves AND likes his son; in fact, I think it is that love that drives him to advocate for a cure.

Welcome back to WP, ChatBrat!! !

DW I appreciate what I believe you are trying to say but will say that conflict and change are not mutually exclusive. Anger over a bad situation is often a good element to encourage someone to do the things necessary to change rather than perhaps being complacent. Conflict is merely the grinding of opposing forces leading to inevitable change.
This in mind, what is exactly "destructive" energy?

Are my points of view subtle? Nope.
Are they confronting? Yes
Are they scary? Very
Are they destructive? I really don't think so.
Are they unproductive? No. Unproductive is to ignore. Unproductive is to not learn and to question? Unproductive is to expect reasonableness from such things. Unproductive is to wait for murder before denouncing it rather than to head the murderer away from their prey when there was the suspicion of foul deeds afoot.

We know that their Executive is populated heavily by people with a background in Departments and organisations that deal with Birth defects and pre-Natal screening.

We know that Geraldine Dawson announced that they have made huge inroad in being able to detect Autism in kids around 2 and that they want to detect it earlier (how MUCH earlier than two (Any more than 24 months earlier and we ARE talking pre-natal)

We know that they were founded on the basis of finding a cure....but now through misdirection and shutting down communications are now funded up and injecting money into genetic tissue stockpiling and research.

We know that their videos show a dehumanising view of Autism and by default the kids with Autism.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt104387.html

This I think is far from me being unproductive.
Why does it matter to me? I am not a kid growing up. I am not having any more children.

So....why does it matter. This is why.

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Damn I hope your assertions about the destructiveness and unproductiveness and anger of what I write is true DW. I would sleep a lot easier. I would worry a lot less.
If (and let's just entertain for a moment that there MAY be enough to warrant a little concern that I may be dead to bloody rights on this) I am right and it is too late in the piece for "gentle education...what do you suggest that the average every day "us" ought to do? How would my writings then look in respect of the destructiveness, anger and unproductiveness that you believe they possess?

PS When you do say DW that you are a parent of a child with Autism, do understand that I am too. He is not AS, he is Autistic and he is 13. I am similarly diagnosed.

Last edited by rossc on 18 Jun 2010, 9:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

Wrong. At least for (b) and (c), there is plenty of evidence of places that purport to help autistic people torturing them instead (JRC being a prime example), and as a result (a) has occurred. There are measures being put in place (prenatal testing) that, combined with pressure on parents to abort a 'defective' child, will result in (d). They can't manage (e) yet, but they're trying to (ABA, anyone?). It's genocide, plain and simple. There's already been one abortion genocide because people have been deemed useless to society (Down Syndrome); we don't need another one.

That too is my thinking.
As I said before, I really hope to be wrong in all this. I HOPE to be proved in time to be a conspiracy theorist. A nutter. An alarmist. An oversensitive. Troubled.
The alternative is of course that I and Magneto see all too clearly a danger of epic proportions and the state (Vatican and US and UK governments, amoung others) helping pave the way to the way to by degrees realise some of our worse fears.
I would actually rather be wrong

Hi Tim! Thank you for remembering me! : )

See the bolded part. The fact that something done meant as a cure or help or control is experienced as torture is not the same as intent to torture.

Last edited by Mysty on 18 Jun 2010, 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Gosh...how many times can someone say "um" and "uh" in not even five minutes? Apparently quite a lot. Geez.

But other than that, I didn't have too many problems with what he said in and of itself. What bothers me is how what Autism Speaks does and what he said do NOT line up at all(at least in my opinion).

rossc, I know better than to ever try to change the way YOU would approach an issue, and there is some room for multiple approaches. Just ... selling to the undecided, I think the troops on the direct to parent and future parent front lines need to be built up, and I do believe that is where most of the real change will take place.

I did not know you had a child. Ours are the same age.

However, you can't use that as an excuse. Otherwise every tinpot tyrant in The Hague would try using that excuse. Beyond a certain point, it *does* become an intent to torture, at least in the mind of the torturers.

All I said was their are not plans to do what you claim there are plans to do. I'm not excusing anything. What you posted it B.S. There's no evidence for it. Not excusing wrong behavior. But making B.S. claims isn't appropriate either.

What, abort autistic babies? There most certainly are plans to do that. Just because they're not government mandated, it doesn't stop it from being genocide.

What you're posting is complete B.S.