Autism Movement Seeks Acceptance, Not Cures

And so you cannot meaningfully say I love my child but I hate the autism.

That is very true. My brother (who is only 18 months younger than I) is "high-functioning", and I can honestly say I can't picture him anyother way... and nor do I want to.

In unversity we had a lot of discussions about prenatal treatment of genetic disorders and abortion prompted by prenatal genetic screening. Everytime it came back to the question, for myself, if they could "cure" my brother, would I want them to? And each time I thought "no." Yes, having autism has caused him a lot of pain... but the way I see it that pain was caused by society, not by the autism. Now with IBI, they are finding that even more "low-functioning" individuals can be treated with psychological therapy to help them intigrate into society and normal classrooms... but still retain their unique way of thinking. The next step is to make society a little more accomodating and accepting... if that's at all possible.

I have high-functioning autism, and I am sensitive about people saying that autism should be "cured". There isn't any way to cure a neurological disorder like this physically, anyway. If you really want your child to improve then you should appeal to the way they think, and teach them that way.