Parent's view on genetic link to autism: 'I don't want it to be eradicated'
Recent studies have shown certain genetic variations to be more common in people with autism, and in this article a parent of two children with autism and one without gives her opinion on the new discoveries. She explains her happiness with the discoveries as they confirm that autism is not caused by neglectful parenting, but also take away the common thought that autism is a purely genetically caused disease. She does, however, not want her children to be cured, even if the current discoveries may lead to such a cure, because she sees autism as a personality trait rather than as a disease.
My opinion:
I am very curious about all the recent developments concerning autism, but do, to an extent, disagree with the parent in this article. I can see why she dislikes calling it a disease, but on the other hand, I think it is very personal if autism is a gift, a disease, or both. For that reason I believe that a cure should be researched, especially since we cannot foresee whether this cure would take away all symptoms of autism, or only the ones considered negative. The creativity she mentions, for example, may also be part of the person's character rather than of the condition. Therefore I do not support her negative attitude towards a cure for autism.
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