Newsweek

Newsweek ran an article about autism and Asperger’s Syndrome a couple of weeks ago that I just now happened to run across. It’s called “Mysteries and Complications.”

It’s not the ideal, but it got a lot closer to what I’d like to see in a news article concerning autism and asperger’s. For one, it actually mentioned both sides of the issue. On one hand, there were some quotes from Autism Speaks–but even their quotes weren’t overly insane. Boy, I’m betting that pisses them off.

Here’s a quote from the article concerning the Hannah case and mitochondrial disorders:

It’s possible, scientists say, that a challenge to the immune system—be it an infection, a vaccine or some other trigger—could stress already fragile cells and exacerbate the problem. Scientists want to know how many children with autism have mitochondrial disorders. And would it be possible to identify those who might be vulnerable to vaccines? “This case is a call to action to continue to understand this very complex disorder,” says Geraldine Dawson of the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

I love how they referred to Autism Speaks as an “advocacy” group. Advocacy for what? Genocide? Hmm, I’m not going to say anything else about that. You can decide if it’s okay for a mother–stressed or not–to say she’d like to put her child in the car and drive both of them off the George Washington Bridge just because the child is autistic.

This is the link (although, as of 9 pm April 9th, 2008, it was apparently down–as in, like the entire site was down).

On the other hand, Ari Ne’eman got some quotes in too. He’s an aspie btw. He and I are actually in contact via email. He’s the president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN), and involved in the New Jersey legislature. Did I mention that he’s only 20?

[He] believes in neurodiversity, the idea that differences in human behavior should be celebrated, not fixed. People with autism should be called “autistic people,” he says, not “people with autism,” the language favored by mainstream advocacy groups. “Our feeling is that the autism spectrum is an intrinsic part of our personality that cannot be separated,” says Ne’eman. And he worries about research that might one day locate genes and other markers that could help doctors test for autism. Researchers say such knowledge would allow them to intervene early, during a critical window of development in the first year of life. Ne’eman’s fear? That autism will become like Down syndrome—essentially selected out of the population.

Whoo hoo! Tell ’em how it is!

Oh, if you really want to make yourself crazy, go check out the comments section of the Newsweek article.