Things to Come

Attempts to "cure" autism, or to use the less offensive terminology, "unlock" autism, are often focused on identifying "an autism gene". More specifically, the efforts are toward determining if the child will be born with autism. This would be determined prenatally or at birth.

("The Spectrum" generally means the autism Spectrum, including Asperger's syndrome, HFA, PDD and Kanner's autism. Many of us are comfortable with the generic reference of "autistic".)

There are other websites, listed below dealing with "Commercial Genetics" and eugenics as applied to autism. This page relates to neonatal termination.

This is not an anti-abortion site

To the contrary, this considers the mainstream view that abortion should be freely available, including as a means for contraception. If someone is opposed to abortion for religious or other reasons, that decision should be respected.

Regardless of belief concerning abortion in general, abortion for sex selection and eugenics is quite another matter. This is where the sensationalist treatment of autism as a "tragic defect" is relevant. In order for eugenics to target autism, it is necessary to convince mothers that autism is a defect best treated by termination.

"... or at birth"

While early detection of autism may be useful in helping the child adapt, neonatal detection would have no particular benefits in that regard.

The problem with this is an issue raised by groups who do not distinguish between abortion and infanticide. The terminology "fœtus" is avoided in favour of "baby". The purpose is to eliminate the distinction between the two (baby and fœtus). While the intent may be anti-abortion, it is clear that a majority of the public accept the legality of abortion.

Semantics - "Aborting Babies"

The "baby" terminology may seem like a good idea to anti-abortion groups, and seems elegent in its simplicity. The problem is that it makes a basic presumption which has unintended consequences.

The presumption is that the listener is at least minimally opposed to abortion. Therefore if abortion is immoral when applied to a "fœtus", it would be more immoral if applied to a "baby"; i.e., "Abortion is the same as killing babies."   The problem with these semantics is that it ignores the fact that some people will continue to consider legal abortion to be moral. If those people accept the premise ("fœtus" and "baby" are the same) the "baby" terminology suggests the converse is true -- it's okay to kill newborns because it's by definition it's just a late term abortion. This is relevant to eugenics as applied to autism.

Therefore when the distinction between "baby" and "fœtus" is erased, infanticide will become an accepted practice. This is particularly relevant to autism because it is unlikely that autism will be detected prenatally. Alternatively, it may be possible to detect a possibility of autism prenatally, but confirm this neonatally.

I leave the semantics of abortion to the R-T-L and Abortion Choice movements. What's relevent here is the result of the "Autism = Tragedy" propaganda, and purpose of the related research.

Links

This Website

Prenatal Testing for Autism

Autistics als Lebensunwertes Leben Abortion, Eugenics and the Politics of Autism - The Eugenics of Autism, whether to abort for autism and abortion as related to autism

"Lebensunwertes Leben" (Life unworthy of life) was used as a descriptive slogan the Nazi T4 Program.

Fundraising for Eugenics Research under the Guise of Autism Research Fundraising

Environmental Fad-Causes of Autism

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External Links

opposed to eugenics

Commercial Eugenics   (also here (Tripod.com site))

From "Whose Planet Is It Anyway?"   The abortion debate that wasn't - Under the radar, pregnancies increasingly are being terminated when fetuses are prenatally diagnosed with disabilities"

Autistic Genocide Clock

examples of the "cure" approach

"Ready or not, here come genetic tests for autism"

This article indicates that, except for conditions such as Retts syndrome, the testing is limited to "hindsight" searching for a genetic cause. It also states that the information may be harmful. Nevertheless, they state:

"Genetic tests 'are absolutely ready for prime time,' says Arthur Beaudet, chair of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas."

The obvious conclusion is that "early screening" means a very serious attempt at eliminating autistics.

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Written 4-Feb-07 and first posted 20-Jul-08. Last revised 16-Sep-12.

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