Newsweek Article on the Causes of Autism

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Going away?

I dont think anyones personality needs to be cured - thats not a disease.. A growth on your arm or your lungs not working correctly, those are diseases, but the way you are, thats not a disease.

I believe at most, most issues are at the mental level, obviously, by "cured" by proper training..

Yeah, so this article covers that theory someone posted a bit on here a short while back.

Maybe this means we are heading towards a cure.

If so, I just hope it doesn't end up being a cure for something that is natural; that is, if Asperger's has evolutionary significance.

And I don't want it to be forced either, with everyone in the whole freaking world being forced a cure or to face ABSOLUTE social isolation, and for babies on the Spectrum to face a situation not too far off Downs Syndrome. That would be cruel.

The best case scenario is for a cure to be found, but for it to be given to us by choice, with an equal balance of yes and no, and with sufficient knowledge about it all for us to know what each side is like (not by pushing it down our throats against our will).

My concern is not that society will force the choice on us. My concern is that a perfectly decent and well meaning parent will automatically select to cure what isn't necessarily a debilitating affliction. Because you have to leave that decision up to the parents-- you can't trust that level of decision to a child, even a "little professor". To be fair, there are many of us whose lives would be greatly improved by the curebies, just as there are those of us (myself included) who wouldn't want to give up who we are in exchange for te cure to something we can live with.

If I were to be advised that I was going to have a child, I would be greatly concerned for how my genes would carry over. I don't think I'd automatically choose to cure, but I do think that it would weigh heavily on my mind either way.

That's something I was thinking about as well (the decision, I mean). It kinda depends on the severity of the Autism/AS. Even then, if the kid says no, then let it be no. It's a complicated business and I don't have much knowledge and stuff for this sort of thing. I'm only 16, you know.

Here's my take on cures... If one were to become available right this second, I probably wouldn't take it. I have too many hobbies that exist synergistically with my AS (I think), and I would be worried that I wouldn't be able to play the violin or photograph stuff (or finish my thesis, which happens to be due in 10 days). If some 16-year-old like you, KBABZ, didn't want to be cured, I would respect that.

This being said, I don't know if you can recognize how high or low functioning some 2 or 3 year old would be, and what the consequences of waiting for treatment would be. If I could cure a 2 year old that I KNOW would be non-verbal at the age of 20, I would jump at the opportunity. But what's to say that the cure would still take when he or she is 8 after it becomes obvious that life is looking pretty bleak? I don't know that there is a good answer for a dilemma like that.

Yeah, there are a lot of variables that can affect your decision, which makes it very complicated. It should all be left up to the person, if he/she doesn't want to be cured, then let it be so until they decide otherwise, if ever. It's a subject I'm tackling in my story, but I won't get into that. I would respect other people's decisions, and if I didn't, I'd 'force' myself to, if that makes sense. I think that in my case, it's easier for me to say no because I'm not as high up the Spectrum as others are (I scored as half Aspie, half NT on an Aspie online test), so it's a tougher decision for many others.

*award for spelling my username right*

That's precisely what bugs me. This isn't curebie propoganda, this is just where we are. THere's going to be a reasonable tendency to err on the side of caution, which I don't like but can't argue with.