So why exactly do we hate Autism Speaks?

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Finally I found someone who sees the reality of being an aspie.

When Autism Speaks about eradicating aspies and the like I smell something gnarly, what is it? Brimstone.

It seems to consist of NT parents who, rather than love and accept their OTS kids for their strengths, spend their time and energy finding ways to blame their kids' diagnoses on things outside themselves.

Because they want to erase autism from the world through eugenetics and abortion.

Autistics get enough flak from people who are outright malicious with no pretense of help. The last thing any of us need is an organization like Autism Speaks that acts well-meaning, but fans the flames of fear, resentment and hatred against people on the spectrum. With "friends" like them, who needs enemies?

They were probably playground bullies who called autistics, ret*ds as well.

Well guys I am going to throw a spanner in the works here. I have only just found out about Autism Speaks via WP and was going to post exaclty the question that the OP posed. So far none of the replies actually cite any evidence for the claims and then there is this - "and want to cure or eradicate people who have are on the spectrum" - really they want to go around forcibly curing or killing people wow.

As to the video, yes the voice over is a little excessive, but then this is an American group so what do you expect, subtlety is not a national trait. The message I got was yes having an Autisitc child can be a huge burden, but if we all stick together and support family members this burden can be eased. What is so insidious about that message

The video did not mention Aspergers of HFA so I presume that this is a group who are trying to help parents with severely affected kids, again if my assumption is correct what is wrong with that.

And as to the evil desire to find a cure, let me tell you if they are successful in this I will be first in line.

I am not saying that what some of you guys are stating is not factual, but could you please give links to some of your claims. The financial stuff is irrelevant to me.

for example

and



and



and



Again I am not saying you are wrong but these are pretty full on accusations. Do you have supporting evidence?

See their website - AutismSpeaks.org

A bit needless if they're only about the 'low functioning' end of the spectrum, isn't it? If they are only about LFA, then the only conceivable explanation is that they're trying to use scare tactics, by misrepresenting the evidence.

Just have a root around their website.

This reminds me of in X-Men III.

Aye, it's better in the UK where the Autism organisations aren't so panic-mongering and inflammatory as Autism Speaks. Infact The National Autistic Society (leading Autism charity/organisation) in the UK is publicly against some of Autism Speak's messages.

Why do we hate Autism Speaks? I can't speak for anyone else, but I hate them primarily because they are genocidal maniacs.

Not exactly. Current research is towards a pre-natal genetic test for autism, which would allow screening and selective abortion of autistic fetuses. Regardless of your feelings about abortion in general, this would indisputably be genocide. It would also seriously devalue the lives of autistics already born- society would be sending a message that we are not wanted, that they would prefer for us not to exist. The person in charge of overseeing medical ethics in the UK is on record saying she has no problem with such screening, and she also stated that if a pre-natal cure was ever found (most likely in the form of hormone manipulation on the pregnant mother) it could well be compulsory. (This was reported in the BBC, I don't have the link handy but I could excavate it if you insist on evidence)


It's more about how the video fits into their overall message. In an earlier video published by Autism Speaks, a woman who is now a VP with the organization openly expressed a desire to murder her autistic daughter. The only reason she didn't was out of consideration for her non-autistic (and thus more valuable) daughter. They constantly push the message that an autistic life is not worth living, that autistics are sub-human, that there is no hope for us to live normal, fulfilling lives. Also, they refuse to have any input from actual autistic people. They are only interested in speaking for us, not in representing us.


Half wrong. Autism Speaks likes to have it both ways. They count AS/HFA people when they talk about how many autistics there are (gotta have a big number to scare people) but then they try their hardest to pretend that high-functioning autistics don't exist.



They sued a kid who made a parody website (ntspeaks.org) and they sued another kid for making t-shirts that said something like "Autism Speaks can go away. I have autism, I can speak for myself." Links are probably in the WP news archive.

The financial stuff is somewhat relevant because it shows where their priorities lie, and it clearly is not in helping autistics.


Hang around this subforum a while and you'll see enough links to interesting information. I can assure you that most of the accusations leveled against Autism Speaks in this thread are very well supported.

Sorry my friend but I can not agree with this. Personally I would not want to raise a severely autistic child. I do not see a test carried out in the first trimester and a half and a decision to abort based upon this as genocide. The Downs syndrome community have been through this and there are still downs kids being born, the difference of course being that their parents are prepared for the journey. I do not see any devaluing of downs kids if anything they are more valued, as in they are not shoved off to institutions, and are now often educated in mainstream schools.

The difficulty with Autism being that it is a spectrum disorder, so where does the test draw the line?

That is the problem. It could conceivably carve too far into the regular genome and hurt humanity as a whole. With DS its a lot more clear cut.

^ I agree the science as it stands is far too broad, but what if it was more defined

I dont know that it could be refined all that much. Too much variation in the spectrum. That probably says something about the diagnostic criteria, doesnt it?

In any case, I cant take seriously a man without a WP avatar.

Probably not, in which case it should not be an option to parents


Two things come to mind, 1. This remark is going to look kinda odd once WP gets its act together, and 2. Beware the enigmatic abortionist

I don't hate the organization at all.