Don't know if anyone else watches this series, it is a bit "soapy", but last night I watched this episode. If you watch the series, don't read further, watch the episode, otherwise, read on.
It features a mom whose first born was autistic, and she is convinced it happened due to vaccines (saying things like "I saw the light go out of his eyes" and other things which just got me really upset - was very hard watching, you want to really beat up this lady after a while). She says the most hateful, despicable things, all the time, with her autistic son RIGHT THERE, like "he's living in some parallel universe" etc. She decided not to vaccinate her other two boys. Then the one gets measles, gets really, really ill.
When autism features on popular TV, I usually ache thinking what the writers are going to come up with - perhaps give some support to the vaccine conspiracy, influencing millions of viewers? Dehumanize the character? But they didn't. They did so well. I almost cried, when they had all the doctors disputing the theory and urging her to vaccine her remaining son, urgently, before he too catches measles. In the end, one of the doctors just takes a needle and vaccine the remaining boy with the mom going crazy and threatening him with lawsuits. It was triumphant (but, yes, quite illegal, but who cares). And her son with the measles die. So sad, but so true, far too true for far too many families that have been indoctrinated by Jenny M and her massive Oprah support group.
May many more truths like this be spoken in popular TV series. One day, we may actually just be accepted for the humans we are, and intensely human we are, and just very fine so.
22 Jan 2009, 5:44 am
