Aborting an autistic child could mean aborting the guy who discovers a greater source of energy, the guy who fixes politics, or devises a way to correct the climate imbalance and reverse global warming. When talking about the so-called epidemic did anyone stop and think that maybe when society and technology gets ridiculously complex autism is just nature’s way of dealing with it? The more complexity there is in the world the more the brain must be able to comprehend more and more complex systems of information. The increase in autism rates is just human evolution responding to a changing environment like all other genetic changes that happen in our genetic code.

You are taking a huge risk for the future of society by aborting an autistic child, statistically a higher risk than an average child, especially in light of the fact that it is rarer statistically for autistic people to become career criminals diminishing the weight of the “but what about people who hurt society” argument.

As for social service costs. Imagine if there was no going back a few hundred years and so no social service costs. America would still be a British colony or part of Canada (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson). We would likely still have no understanding of nuclear physics. No electricity(Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison). If we were lucky enough to get electricity still no computers, Microsoft and Apple would’ve never existed. From a social costs perspective we’re better off with autism than not. Besides, autism is relative. There will always be a cutoff where doctors will see those symptoms in others. If we identify a gene and cure autism from that gene there will still be more autisms, endlessly as the concept of “autism” expands. “Autism” is actually very simply difference in general. Any difference in thinking for any aspect in any direction that goes far enough will cause some trouble communicating, hence presenting symptoms of autism. So if we try to cure or abortion autism the end of that process would be for humanity as a whole to all be one giant glob of uniformity with no individuality.

And from a personal standpoint I’d say I have it pretty good. Really don’t get what the fuss is all about.

Some of them already have become active parts of society

http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2009/02/13/college-is-possible-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/employment-for-down-syndrome-adults.html

BTW, this is an Onion article instead of a real article and it’s an enjoyable read:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/developmentally-disabled-burger-king-employee-only,462/

I’m an almost-16-year-old male Aspie, too, so, Hi fellow-Aspies.

I would like to post my opinion on this.

I’m against aborting foetuses with a high chance of having autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. Why? Not only because I myself am autistic, but also because IF I want to have children later, I have to realize that because of my autism, my son(s) and daughter(s) will probably inherit it, too. Since the 90s, the knowledge about AS and autism has been expanded a lot, and every year, techniques of helping autistic children, teenagers and adults have gone better! There is no need to abort those people because we are ‘knowledged’ enough about autism, that we can help them to live in society with the NTs. They can do it. Well, most of them. But the same applies to victims of violence and potential suicide victims: some will and some won’t manage to life or to cope or to be a part of society- BUT the chances of making them potential thrivers and people who can live in society and who can live life have increased (thanks to psychiatrists and stuff).

Sorry, I get a bit side-tracked by this.

However, if my mother would abort (she wouldn’t because I’m the most important person in her life – yeah, she’s the greatest mum to me) me, I wouldn’t be F-ing mad at her. Not because I hate life, I’m very optimistic and I am, what you might call, a Wide-Eyed Idealist. The point is that – I believe in the Omniverse hypotheses – there are alternative timelines / universes where I am aborted. But I guess I’m going to dismiss this argument because you would all say ‘so there’s a timeline where you might be a sick violent psychopath that kills and rapes men and women?’
There might be one. However, we don’t have a true purpose in life, we determine our own destiny and stuff, so you pro-life activists can go to Utah (not intended to be offensive) with your argument that ‘we all have the right to life because God has a purpose for us and crap’. I was a foetus back then, I had no morals, no sense of good or bad. The fact that I love life is because I’m raised up by my mother and society that ‘life = good and smiling = good and crying = bad or good depending on the situation’. So yeah, what if I was aborted. I’m happy that hasn’t happened, but if it did happened, I wouldn’t be hear and stuff. I couldn’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Please don’t call me nihilistic, but our lives have value because we gave it value. We gave society value, we give everything value, so the reason why abortion is a problem for a lot of people IS because we value life a lot. I value it, too, but I wouldn’t have understand our felt that value if I was aborted.

If you are a teenage girl and you get pregnant, and it was not your intention to get pregnant, then I would find abortion acceptable. Women who got raped will always have the right to abort their children that they received from the rapist(s). Whatever happens, those women have all the right to say ‘I don’t want it, abort it!’

People say ‘yeah, that teenage couple fuc.. – I mean – made love with no protection, so they have kind of said ‘yeah, I might get pregnant, so I must face the consequences if the condom rips apart”
People say that women have to use the freakin’ pill. They are right, but girls including one of my best friends said that they have all these problems and issues when they take the pill. They might get depressed or irritated or crazy, shit happens.

The moment where abortion is the least acceptable (except after hitting the expiration date of abortion) is when people abort a child after they decided to have a child. That’s why if I get children, I have to face the high chances. So, I HAVE to be prepared for autistic children. Same applies when you bang a woman who’s over her 40s, the chances are verrrrrrry high that the kid might be mentally retarded or Down Syndrome. The other moment is when you make love and it might go unprotected (either intentionally or unintentionally) that you might receive a baby and you abort it WHILE you are in a suitable situation to have children (you’ve got plenty of money to afford a third person in the house, you life in comfortable or/and healthy place and building, ect.).

Of course aborting children on basis of their race or what they are made of is wrong and stuff.
However, I’ve been struggling with something about this.

What if I might have a child that’s retarded, an imbecile, a sociopath, a psychopath or a child with Down Syndrome? I’m I a Nazi Bitch if I aborted a child with a problem like that?
True, people have developed better techniques for retarded people to life in society, but a lot of those issues hurt other people. Maybe that was a bad argument hmmmm…

Of course, life doesn’t guarantee you everything, but IMO there’s something different between an autistic person and a person who can’t talk or do actions while coming-over as someone that is choking on a brick. There’s also a paradox. NOTE: I hate peer pressure and the ignorance and attitude of society towards several issues.

If I have a child with Down Syndrome, a lot of people might look down upon me and my family, giving me the feeling that I’m with a big burden compared to their children. If my (hypothetically) wife would abort a child with mental retardation or DS, she will be seen as a Nazi or a some scumback that might be on the same list as serial murders and rapists.
Seriously, things already make me nervous or confused. Having children will make me mentally exhausted of course. But If I have a Down Syndrome or retarded kid, I will probably have a mental breakdown because I would have the feeling that I have to take care for someone 24 hours a day. I mean, more autistic people have left the house than Down Syndrome people (excluding going to mental institutions or something).

Of course, we all have suffering and pain and heartbreak and sadness. BUT their is a limit. I mean, I would dream for a world of less suffering. I mean, suffering happens in life and it’s naturally, but does that mean that people must simply accept that things like rape are just a part of life? Hell no! I would still have plenty of suffering in my life EVEN if there was no rape or murder. You know, I might put an Down Syndrome / retarded kid for adoption, but I don’ t know if someone would want to adopt such a child. Why not, Why yes?

IMO, the issue of aborting autism is far different than the issue of aborting down syndrome and retarded and psychopathic children in some way. For instance, autistic people CAN become an active part of society, while Down Syndrome and retarded children will HARDLY become an active part of society. And Psychopathic children might become a threat to us in the future. (To the pro-life people: would you have allowed the mother of Hitler to abort him or not?)

I don’ t want to come over as a ‘survival of the fittest’ fanboy, but being an active part of society is important. Yes, we have altruism and compassion and we can help people and we would like to help people, But eventually the burden is too much for the active part of society. Understand that.

I don’ t know what I am at some moments like this. Am I worthy to call myself a Wide-Eyed Idealist that strives for a world of compassion where men and women won’ t judged by their mannerisms, by their traumas, etc.??? Am I worthy to call myself a man that wants to dream for a world where rape doesn’ t exist? Am I worthy to call myself a filosopher in-training that wants to become an English Fantasy writer to bring his moralic ideals to others??? OR AM I just a discriminating bastard that’s a Nazi Lover like ‘Nazi Bitch’?

I rest my case, for now then.

…and who, with Paul Robeson, also co-founded the American Crusade Against Lynching. Albert Einstein was not only an activist against racial segregation but also spoke up a lot about other social issues too: http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/exhibits/einstein/essay3.html

The book Einstein on Race and Racism by Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor has even more stuff about how social Einstein was. Jerome and Taylor begin with this:

“More than one hundred biographies and monographs about Albert Einstein have been published, yet not one of them mentions the name Paul Robeson, let alone Einstein’s friendship with him; or the name W.E.B. Du Bois, let alone Einstein’s support for him. Nor does one find in any of these works any reference to the Civil Rights Congress whose campaigns Einstein actively supported. Finally, nowhere in all the ocean of published Einsteiniana—anthologies, bibliographies, biographies, summaries, articles, videotapes, calendars, posters and postcards—will one find even an islet of information about Einstein’s visits and ties to the people in Princeton’s African American community around the street called Witherspoon.

“One explanation for this historical amnesia is that Einstein’s biographers and others who shape our official memories felt that some of his ‘controversial’ friends, such as Robeson, and activities, such as co-chairing the antilynching campaign, might somehow tarnish Einstein as an American icon. That icon, sanctified by Time magazine when it dubbed Einstein the ‘Person of the Century,’ is a myth, albeit a marvelous myth. In fact, as myths go, Einstein’s is hard to beat. The world’s most brilliant scientist is also a kindly, lovably bumbling, grandfather figure: Professor Genius combined with Dr. Feelgood! Opinion-molders, looking down from their ivory towers, may have concluded that such an appealing icon will help the great unwashed public feel good about science, about history, about America. Why spoil such a beautiful image with stories about racism, or for that matter with any of Einstein’s political activism? Politics, they argue, is ugly, making teeth grind and fists clench, so why splash politics over Einstein’s icon? Why drag a somber rain cloud across a bright blue sky? Einstein might reply, with a wink, that without rain clouds life would be very, very short. Or he might simply say that a bright blue sky is a fairy tale in today’s war-weary world.

“Yet, despite Einstein’s clear intention to make his politics public—especially his antilynching and other antiracist activities—the history-molders have seemed embarrassed to do so. Or nervous. ‘I had to think about my Board,’ a museum curator (who doesn’t want his name used even today) stated, while explaining his omission of some of the scientist’s political statements from the major exhibition celebrating Einstein’s one-hundredth birthday in 1979.

“When it came to how to handle Einstein’s ashes or his house on Mercer Street, everyone involved meticulously adhered to his wishes. But when it involved his ideas, and especially his concerns about what he called America’s ‘worst disease,’ the fact that Einstein wanted his views made as public as possible seems to have slipped past his historians.

“Readers may judge for themselves how much of this oversight is due to forgetting and how much may be due to other motives (including, perhaps, disagreement with Einstein’s point of view). It is not so much the motive for the omission but the consequence that concerns us. Americans and the millions of Einstein fans around the world are left unaware that Einstein was an outspoken, passionate, committed antiracist. ‘It is certain—indeed painfully obvious—that racism has permeated U.S. history both as idea and practice,’ as the historian Herbert Aptheker states. Nevertheless, he adds, “It always has faced significant challenge.’

“Racism in America depends for its survival in large part on the smothering of antiracist voices, especially when those voices come from popular and widely respected individuals—like Albert Einstein. This book, then, aspires to be part of a grand unsmothering…”

“…Let me explain by my own story. From the time I was only 6 to when I was 15, I went through horrid sexual abuse (on top of every other kind, including having a gun to my head) . I was so scared for my life that I never told anyone till much later in life…”

That’s terrible! I hope the rapist is in jail or dead by now!

“…Should I have a child made out of rape, and accept the consequences of something that was against my will and not my fault! Absolutely not! And think about that child for a moment. One day they are going to ask about daddy. How is that child going to feel about being born of such an act?…”

I’ve heard some people who were conceived by rape argue basically “if my mother got an abortion after she was raped then I wouldn’t be here, therefore nobody should be allowed to have an abortion after getting raped.” I wonder how many people who were conceived by rape argue “if my father didn’t rape then I wouldn’t be here, therefore men should be allowed to rape.” Could that be part of why some people argue in favor of forced-marriage and marital-rape traditions?

I do not believe it is right to abort a child simply because it has a disability of any kind!! Who is anyone to say that the child can not lead a full and happy life? Just because they are different? Life is full of pain, sorry, suffering dispare for anyone that has ever been alive!! It’s part of the package!! There is pain, sorrow, suffering, discomfort, as well as happiness, love, and joy!

Whether you are NT, Autistic, a person with Downs, etc, all of us shall experience all these things and more throughout living our lives. To say that one way of life is more or less difficult than another is nieve at best.

That aside, who are you to play God? Because someone has a disability does not mean that God does not have a plan and a purpose for that person! Or even if you do not believe in God, that the person does not have a purpose or reason for being in this world. It is not for us to judge such a thing.

On the general abortion issue, I will say this. For those like myself, whom were forced without consent at a very young age, (and it was over, and over and over again) and are to scared to tell anyone what is going on, abortion as an option due to rape should not be taken off the table!

Let me explain by my own story. From the time I was only 6 to when I was 15, I went through horrid sexual abuse (on top of every other kind, including having a gun to my head) . I was so scared for my life that I never told anyone till much later in life.

Imagine if at say, age 13, after another time, I had gotten pregnant. I am scared for my life which had already almost been taken before, so I am still scared to tell anyone. Is it still my choice to be pregnant? Did I ask for this? Of course not!!

Should I have a child made out of rape, and accept the consequences of something that was against my will and not my fault! Absolutely not! And think about that child for a moment. One day they are going to ask about daddy. How is that child going to feel about being born of such an act?

In general I am against abortion, but in that case, I am not. Otherwise, I agree that you are making a choice when you decide to have sex unprotected. That child did not ask to be concieved, and as for the debate at when life begins, that is a question science has yet to find the answer to.

And there is my two cents.

But I think that the question of selective abortion needs to be considered totally separate from the standard pro-choice and pro-life talking points. Because many people who are otherwise pro-life will allow for selective abortion of disabled fetuses (this is in fact part of how enough support for abortion to legalize it even happened) and many people who are otherwise pro-choice are against selective abortion of disabled fetuses.

Personally I’m neither standardly pro-life nor standardly pro-choice, but that’s neither here nor there anyway.

The idea that it’s compassionate to decide that someone should never have the chance to live, because they will be disabled, is pretty ridiculous. Disabled people have the same capacity for happiness as any other sort of person. Yes, even severely disabled people. (Although there are people who will blame their unhappiness on being disabled, those people are generally the sort of person who would find something to whine about.)

So the idea that you’re preventing someone from being unhappy their whole life doesn’t work. Moreover, I don’t think it’s for anyone to decide whether another person is or will be capable of happiness based on a single trait. That’s called prejudice, not reality.

So the whole idea of selectively aborting a disabled fetus because you think they will be miserable and unhappy, is a statement about the person thinking that, not a statement about the actual life of a disabled person. But unfortunately the misplaced “compassion” of non-disabled people has led to the deaths of disabled people who were already born, too. You’d think that would be a warning against the idea of making life-and-death decisions on the basis of “compassion for disabled people’s suffering”, but people don’t take it that way. :-/