Folks, this is industry standard. Every medical student disassembles a body.
Cancer research has long been based on tissue banks.
It has become fairly standard to harvest reusable parts.
Brain morphology as related to DNA as related to outcomes is a very new field, and very complex.
The article does say Harvard runs the program. It is not just autism, besides conditions that produce different brainforms, we are just coming to an understanding that all brains are not alike.
A recent study showed that East Asians and Europeans process math in different ways, Asians use the visual center, Europeans the verbal. Some wonder if it might be from the use of the abaccus, a visual teaching form, where Europe uses words. We may be the same, and the result only teaching methods. There are also differances in the concept of self, Europe stands alone, Asia includes mother, line, which might be cultural, or might be a differance of wiring.
While there is some interest in outstanding forms, Autism, there is no base line. It takes a life history, DNA, and a brain to compare. While a random study of brains gives an overview, and shows results like FAS, mothers to be who drink, most is an unknown.
That children become organ and tissue donars is a lot rarer than the older people who donate their bodies. Most die after 55, and most of their organs are not transplant material.
If you are eight and need a new heart, liver, you have a big problem finding one that matches, and in your size. Besides organs and tissue, the bodies of children are much harder to come by for study.
There are some real big questions in normal development till three, then regression. It does point to some cause, and not vaccines. There has been much speculation, all has been checked, with no results. The ideal study would compare the brains of normal development with the autistic variation at the age of three.
Thanks to this very type of medical study, not many people die at three. Very few of them become available for organ donation and tissue study.
Autism Speaks seems to have hired a PhD to run thier program, so they can call him Doctor.
They are a fund raising group, not personally up on Science, but have raised a lot of money that no matter what they infer by Autism Speaks Research, they had nothing to do with what the study would be about, other than Autism related donations. Studies are planned by peer reviewed science that will best advance a broad field of study.
I did think well of the Stem Cell line, but standard materials are only part of the problem.
Brains do seem to take another development path at three. If it was from birth, I would hold other views, but if there is something there, it may be a cure, or at least a moderation.
Aspies remind me of teens, old teens that do not grow out of it. Maybe in another twenty years, maturing at 42.
LFA may have great mental abilities, but lack the means of connecting. They are the focus, the great expense of Autism, and just perhaps, something could cause them to develop into annoying Aspies.
As for the death camps that keep getting mentioned, Autism Speaks funded peer reviewed science shows twenty two sites on DNA, up from thirteen a year ago. There will be no selective abortion.
The DNA study did show some broad traits, shared by all autistics, LFA, Aspies, and Broader Autism Phenotype. 10% of the population, plus a lot more with the recessive parts.
Aspies seem to not breed LFA, the parents seem all NT, yet we have Autism. The most I have heard is it runs in families, but they do not get worse over generations.
There is something about the DNA, but it does not seem to be the direct cause. Perhaps people with this DNA are subject to a minor virus that brings change. That could explain the range of ASDs, another mystery, for most things are plain cause and effect. We know the effects are broad, some even useful. Like Small Pox, that killed many, scared many, was mild in some, and others were just immune carriers.
Medical Science is a messy business, nature still has them outgunned. They have won some battles, eradicated Small Pox, Polio, and have earned some street cred.
If Autism Speaks was only NT, that group think and singleminded focus. But Alas, they are the worst, Marketing and Advertising, and have situational ethics. They have defined a demographic that gives them money, and that is all they focus on.
They can promote tissue donation, and they do have a broad base. But, as the article stated, that happens through the Medical Examiner, and is forwarded to Harvard.
Parents know even less, and first they seek knowledge and hope at Autism Speaks, after that, Wrong Planet becomes Plan "B".
If I thought there could be a vaccine that would lessen the effects of a Virus and turn Aspies into Geeks, I would be in favor of it, and if it turned those who would react the most, LFA, into Aspies, I would tell them they are annoying. Everyone alive would be beyond treatment, for that would become universal in the first year of life.
It would have a huge market, even those who's DNA did not fit the profile would want it.
What I have noticed is not even Autism can change the personalities here. They are almost as broad as the world, but more focused on Science, Technology, Mechanics, Arts, Education, and if cured, they would still be, but without the closet full of Lego.
Those alive now are hopeless, more excess Neurons than you could ever drink to death.
I do see that this Virus strikes the INTJ, INTP, some ENTP-J, and it seems a genetically coded suceptable personality with varying reactions to our Goa'ould masters. No one can kill them, but they can be reduced to our slaves.
So I fully support Autism Speaks in the search for a cure, for if they fail, the Goa'ould will take their revenge on them.
08 Mar 2010, 4:20 am
). Also, they recently started making a bio bank where their asking for the brains of dead autistic kids/people... EWWW! (I'm not kidding about the biobank...)
