Full now of good intentions to say that I am happy to be just autistic, honesty compells me to confess that all is not perfect in my life. I wish that I could verbalize my thoughts when I want to. It is hard to make close friendships when it takes me so long to spell out my thoughts through a facilitator. Also, my chosen career, journalism, is hard to pursue because I write so slowly. So, would I like to be cured of my autism? You bet I would!
]]>Here are some of my favorite chapters from our book. They bring back some poignient memories.
]]>Above are two links to a new controversy. It seems that doctors can do in-vitro fertilization and determine the sex of an embryo before inserting it into the uterus. This has already been done to “screen out” embryos of either gender with genetically identifiable diseases that are fatal at a young age. Because male babies are four times more likely to be autistic than female babies, doctors want to use this technique in families where there are at least two instances of autism , discarding male embyos and thus decreasing the likelihood of having another autistic child.
I strongly disagree with this stategy. Autistic people (like me) live as long as anyone else on average and enjoy life! We contribute to this world in a positive way and are loved by others and use our minds (even if it doesn’t look like we are to the rest of the world). But I disagree with this method under any conditions. I know from my days in a severely and profoundly physically and mentally disabled classroom (before I managed to let people know that I wasn’t mentally disabled) that whatever the disability, kids enjoy life and form friendships. Only God could judge the viability of each life.
Where will the line be drawn? It is already possible, apparently, to choose to discard embryos by gender, if a doctor can be found to do so and the parents are able to afford to do so. It frightens me to think about where this could lead us.
I feel sympathy for parents who lose their baby to a terrible disease. I hope they know their baby is in God’s embrace. I can’t imagine their pain. I hope they come away from their experience without bitterness and knowing that their baby loved them very much.
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