A "cure" for Autism

Sure, if that's what it would take to prevent anyone from growing up low-functioning. See post 8

I highly doubt that intellectual people are going to disappear from society if autism-spectrum disorders are cured.

edited 7th Jan '11 4:45:36 PM by Wicked223

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!

It's usually possible to tell pretty early who's high-functioning and who's low-functioning, I think.

It's not intellectuals that I think would be removed, so much as it is alternative ways of seeing the world.

"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice." — Joseph De Maistre.

Depending on precisely when "pretty early" is, it might still be too late.

By "pretty early," I meant toddler/preschool age.

"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice." — Joseph De Maistre.

Considering that it's entirely likely that a cure is fundamentally impossible without generalized brain rewriting technology, I find it fairly depressing that this comes up so often at all.

That being said, I'll note that

speaking as a person diagnosed with ASD, I find this offensively thoughtless. Even assuming it's not even hypothetically serious, I find it to be in incredibly poor taste.

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

A "cure" may be impossible in the sense that certain characteristics of autism, such as characteristics involving personality (even though of course not all autistics have the same personality), but on the other hand, many things have been known to trigger certain autism "symptoms".

For example, gluten and dairy for some, heavy metals for others, and other triggers as well. Some parents found their low-functioning autistic kids acting more normal when gluten and dairy were removed from their diets, and swear by such a diet. Others said it had no effect at all.

I don't think most autistic people would voluntarily take a cure, even if it was developed. A lot of people with autism find it offensive that they are viewed as "diseased" instead of "different."

If a cure ever was offered, it should not be endorsed by the state and should not be compulsory, as the state would be overstepping its bounds in regards to personal freedoms. Also, it should only be given to adults, who are able to consent to the treatment. Parents who give kids autism "cures" are not giving their kids a chance to decide for themselves.

But I always found the idea of a "cure for autism" quite horrific. If autistic people are cured against their will, then what's stopping the state from taking people with ADHD and forcibly "curing" them too?

Would you kindly click my dragons?

Other than this conception of a violation of personal liberty (which may or may not be a valid complaint-I'm not in a position to argue that), what would be the harm, exactly?

Are we bestowing some level of suffering upon people because of changing their condition?

Some people like being different. And the violation of personal liberty is a big point against any action (save for harmful ones).

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

Nearly all the people I've known to bring up the idea of a "cure" for autism have themselves been people on the autistic spectrum who brought it up in order to object to it. I can't find it in myself to view it as an actual issue, it's more of a flag to wave for the autistic "community."

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

The state forcibly curing ADHD cases doesn't even strike me as a particularly bad thing, much less bad enough to make for a compelling slippery slope argument. I mean, "disorder" is even in its name. I think if you want to alarm people about the prospect of the state curing people against their will, it's best to use something like homosexuality.

Well, let's be realistic: A cure for ADHD would probably come with cripplingly BORING personality. I'd be adverse to improving my concentration if, in order to do so, I had to kill any semblance of fun in my life.

Talking about a cure for autism independent of any side-effects of said cure is an unrealistic scenario to begin with.

Why? Do you think most people without ADHD have boring personalities?

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

No. I think anti-depressants and other drugs designed to alter one's chemical state come at the cost of other mental abilities and states. Changing one thing without affecting every single other thing is essentially impossible.

I wish the ADHD cases I went to school with were boring. "Boring" beats "unrelentingly annoying".

It's not like people with ADHD can't be boring anyway.

Fight smart, not fair.

I'm saying that medical cures are often rife with heavy side effects.

Any cure for autism would be the same. I have no problem "Force curing" people with mental conditions, so long as the cure itself doesn't impose other problems upon them (and so long as "mental conditions" isn't defined arbitrarily vague in such a way as to be exploitable).

edited 8th Jan '11 8:58:21 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

"Has side effects" does not equate to "makes your personality boring."

I'm no longer medicated for ADD because I haven't been able to use any medication I've been prescribed for it in years without extremely troublesome side effects (it was a great convenience to me when I was still able to be effectively medicated,) but none of the side effects have ever included a more boring personality.

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

Seconded. Ritalin made me an anal retentive tightass while I was on it, but didn't do a thing that I could notice for creativity or generally being the weird weirdo that everyone pointed to and said was weird. Because good god I was a weird kid. At least when I was taking it, though, I was able to control myself enough to not doodle on a wall if I was sitting near enough to it and listen to the teacher.

Everything I've tried in my adulthood makes me both calmer and more flighty. More flighty is not something I need.

edited 8th Jan '11 9:27:29 PM by Bur

i. hear. a. sound.

The general attitude in our society is that we don't forcibly fix people for mental disorders short of risk of harm to themselves or others. We abandon this at our peril.

However, I'd agree with Desertopa that I haven't seen much evidence this is likely to happen.

Attempts to persuade parents to do things, perhaps.

A brighter future for a darker age.

BTW, what I mean by "too late" is that a cure for autism almost certainly means rewiring the brain on a fundamental level. Doing that after it's accumulated umpteen years of memories is going to have side effects, which presumably get worse the longer you wait.

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

I'm diagnosed with Aspergers, though it's universally agreed among my many friends who have great knowledge of medicine, learning disabilities, etc, that I've managed to attain a far higher level of social skills than I logically should.

This to me affirms my belief that I'm an innately social person who doesn't have the necessary brain wiring to be able to properly show it. I consider Aspergers, in my own case, not just a disease but a fucking curse that I can't escape. To the point of And I Must Scream, and no exaggeration.

So I'd take a cure as soon as possible, and genuinely wish one would be created in my life time.

My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.

I'm not necessarily saying that it would specifically make a person boring. I'm saying that it would do X, where X is some potentially extremely costly side effect, and an analysis of the ethics and morality of the development of a cure for autism really cannot be done independently of knowing the costs involved.

Well, that's not true. I mean, you can make an argument such that it's a bad idea even without any costs involved. I don't really buy that argument, however. But I also don't want to say "I'm pro cure!" because I don't think that a cure would be like flipping a simple switch.

edited 9th Jan '11 7:38:50 AM by TheyCallMeTomu

Pre-natal prevention beats post-natal cures, anyway.