Do you support Autism Speaks?

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Actually, I was referring to how poor social skills are a hallmark of autism.

P.S. Punctuation is still your friend.

well i just don't want to be forced into something unethical, and if i have kids i want them to be healthy autistics growing up in an accepting society.

It would be unethical if someone was forcing you to take the cure. If it's voluntary, then I don't see the problem with it.

except that i live in the south and i would have certain people knocking on my door forcing me to if i didn't.

Hmmm, perhaps it is you who does not understand what genocide is? It does not have to involve killing anyone. All that it entails is the systematic extermination of a group, whether that be by killing them off, neutering them, or 'curing' them.


AutismSpeaks is aimed mostly at mothers of autistic children. This is quite evident from the number of videos portraying mothers trying to deal with their autistic child while the child is in the middle of a meltdown. Mothers can force the cure on their child. In fact, if the cure can be administered while the fetus is still in the womb, then the cure is most certainly forced.

It will be a cold day in Hell before I find any excuse to support that villainous outfit.

Is curing cancer also the same as committing genocide against people with cancer?

I'm new to Autism Speaks. But are they researching a test to determine if a foetus has autism? If so, would that not lead to a large increase in the number of foetuses aborted?

A prenatal test for autism isn't any worse than having a prenatal test for Tay-Sachs or Down syndrome. Since someone is inevitably going to play the "But you could abort the next Einstein!" card, let me point out that a. run that risk with any fetus, regardless of whether or not they have autism and b. you could end up aborting the next Hitler. Saying that abortion is wrong because of the vanishingly small chance that you're going to abort the person who finds the cure for cancer is ridiculous.

I'm not playing any cards. It just seems to me that aborting foetuses with autism is not curing people, it is preventing their existence. 92% of babies screened positive for Downs Syndrome in the UK were aborted. source

Not everyone is emotionally or financially able to care for a child with special needs. And TBH, I don't really care whether or not someone chooses to abort a fetus. It's their choice, not mine.

OK. You seem quite adamant about all this. I haven't got the energy to debate the pro's and con's of abortion. Plus I've only just heard of Autism Speaks, so I can't really comment further.

For the record, I don't support AS, far from it. I'm just extremely pro-choice.

If you want to find out why many autistic people are against Autism Speaks, this site gives a good overview. They aren't actually improving autistic people's quality of life and they don't actually have any autistic people working for them. A better organization is the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, which was founded by someone with autism.

It could be, if people with cancer qualified as a "group".

That's beside the point though, you can't seriously compare a disease that kills people with a hereditary personality trait that is expressed in one's genes, and I'm sure you realise how much of a strawman that is.

We both agree that AutismSpeaks is a bad organization, though, so who cares.

1. People with cancer are a group.
2. Okay, I'll amend my statement. Let's say someone found a cure for ADHD. Would you say that a cure for ADHD is like genocide? People with ADHD are also a group.
3. Yeah, at least we have that. :D

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/autism/story/2011/04/New-checklist-could-detect-autism-by-age-1/46590470/1?loc=interstitialskip

Autism Speaks helped fund the research that led to what is considered a breakthrough in the diagnosis of Autism in children by age 1. The article goes on to say that it won't screen for Autism that is developed later in life.

This kind of research is helpful in the early intervention and treatment with Autistic children that have developmental issues, at a very young age. Intervention at this point can make a difference in the child skill levels at a later age.

Does anyone think this type of research is worthwhile?

While some of the research they help support is related to research that might lead to a prenatal test, they help fund a wide variety of other types of research that may result in better intervention for those with Autism that have developmental delays.

There are many organizations that support this research in tandem with Autism Speaks, if Autism Speaks were to cease to exist tommorrow the research would go on.

I don't agree with everything they do, but what they do seems to have a clear purpose, that in part is to help Autistic children fulfill their potential.

In objectively assessing the organizations value; it appears to have some, beyond what is considered negative.

From their site:



I don't plan on sending them any financial support, but I'm not sure the Autistic population, without the organization, would be better off as a whole.