Autism Speaks Partnering With Google to 'Cure' Autism Sparks Backlash
Quote:
research project spearheaded by the controversial autism advocacy organization Autism Speaks and the tech behemoth Google has drawn the ire of some Twitter users, who argue that its ultimate goal to "cure" autism is problematic.
MSSNG, which was launched in 2014, involves the collection and sequencing of DNA from people with a personal or family history of autism. The two absent letter I's from the word "Missing" in the title are meant to represent genetic gaps, per ABC.
Such genetic material is stored in a database that was built with Google technologies. Currently, data on 11,312 individuals, including 5,102 with autism and 6,079 without autism, is available, according to a PDF that can be downloaded from the project's website.
The project says this information will be shared widely with researchers in the hopes of eventually enabling "the identification of many subtypes of autism."
On March 30, the popular Twitter page @AnarchistMemeCo shared a screenshot of the MSSNG Project's website homepage accompanied by screenshots of Tweets that read, in part, "I am not a disease, please do not try to f***ing cure me" and "f*** google and f*** Autism Speaks."
The post seemed to strike a chord with many other netizens. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had racked up more than 32,000 likes. Many decried the project's mission as "eugenics
However, dissent reigned in the replies as well. Some commenters argued that critics of MSSNG overlooked what they see as the pronounced negative impact autism can have on the overall quality of life.
"It's not an attack on autistic people to say autism should be cured. It is a medical condition that hinders human development/behavior," user @backlogrob wrote. "Learning to live with autism and feeling good about yourself doesn't mean doctors shouldn't study it more for a cure. This is not mean to say."
Autism Speaks has yet to address the controversy
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This article is pretty basic stuff to most readers of this section.
WP had plenty of threads on #MSSNG when it first launched and in the years that followed but the topic has rarely been discussed in the last few years so I guess it is good that Newsweek did an article on it both to remind veteran followers of Autism politics and inform newer followers.
Autism Speaks refusing to address this is legitimate reason to suspect neferous intent.
I q
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity.
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 01 Apr 2021, 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
01 Apr 2021, 4:31 pm
