by Emma Maier
"What's wrong with being autistic?" It's not an offering from Prince Harry's best book of bad taste joke jokes. It's one of those knockout observations from a child's unclouded mind.
"George and Sam aren't sad about being autistic because they don't know they are," says 10-year-old Jake of his two brothers. "Anyway, what's wrong with being autistic?" The quote, which features in George and Sam, Charlotte Moore's account of family life with two autistic sons, highlights the key ethical question for science and society following news that a prenatal testing for autism could be around the corner.
In an interesting piece in today's Guardian, Moore It is, rightly, a recurrent debate whenever a new screening test is developed for an inherited condition. And there is no easy answer.
What the debate clearly illustrates is that parents-to-be and society are still nervous and even frightened of being faced with autism, largely because they are ill-informed about it. Books like Moore
i have two sons who happen to have aspergers syndrome and i am very proud of them. I wander how many so called normal people could handle what they have to cope with such as trying to understand the society around them and still have a life.I say to my sons we all have labels i am a mom,nurse,wife and sometimes a embarrasment.A label is to understand and associate with a person its not who you really are and you dont have to live by it.
There is a lot to be grateful for, for being autisic, namely their perception of the world is
different, lets celebrate the difference, not marginalise
When I found out my son had Autism it shattered my world, I felt like I had been knocked down by a bus. I looked on the negative side and felt sad and annoyed about all the experiences my son would miss out on because he could not talk or communicate and didn't seem to want to have friends or socialise with anyone. However, as time went by my son began to talk and learn't social skills. He still has problems with socialisation, but it is not such a big issue. Over the years he has taken up lots of activities such as gymnastics, street dance, singing, swimming, tykwondo, football to name a few. I am very proud of my sons achievements. Apart from the usual teenage/hormone issues, my son is a pleasure to be around. He is polite, couteous (to other people) and he does not hang around in a gang drinking, smoking etc. I always know where he is. When people have said to me it must be hard having a son with Autism, I say I wouldn't swap him for all the tea in china, Why would I want to swap him for a non-Autistic, teenage boy who may hang around in a gang drinking, smoking etc.