Over the past few days, I've been learning some very interesting lessons. In my psych course, we're looking at the scientific method and critical/empirical thinking. I got chided on one list (TMOB) for supposedly "supporting" bad science because I defended an organization who had a conference and someone spoke about some stuff that was not as scientifically sound as would have been preferred. It was a slap in the face and it hurt, but the person was right.
That aside, I now see a bunch of posts on another usenet group (ASA) about vaccines, mercury and such. The poster (person posting, not a sign on a wall) is using Rolling Stone and Natural Health magazines as her sources. Rolling stone. Not too scientific in my opinion.
Anyway, the debate ensued and I finally just got mad and wrote a rant - one that reinforces to me *why* I got a slap on the face on the other list for supposedly supporting bad science. The person on that list said it was not about opinions but about the bad science done in the name of autism and the harm it can cause. I think I see what she means now. Thank you to everyone for putting that into persoective for me!
Anyway...here's my rant:
For the record, I'm in agreement that the modern medical profession has done a lot of damage to people, particularly with the overmedicating of people that seems to happen. I'll be the first to admit it - I saw it first hand when I worked in doctors' offices!
The poster on the usenet group (ASA) had said that the medical profession and big pharma do a lot of harm. She's talking about mercury in vaccines and I'm talking about everything else like antipsychotics and such.
Here is my little twist on the evidence of harm. As we all know...there are few roads to hell paved heavier with good intentions than the one paved in the name of autism!
However, as an autistic person, I am so very tired of seeing autism demonized on a constant basis by the media. I am also tired of seeing the quack "therapies" and treatments that have caused harm in the name of "curing", "defeating" (and other demeaning words) autism. A lot of the harm done to autistic children comes from the hype. When a parent hears of the diagnosis and sees all of this stuff, is it any wonder they feel devastated? It's ok to "celebrate being" with Down Syndrome (That is from the Canadian Down Syndrome society's latest advertisements) but autism must be "stamped out" and "cured now!"
There seems to be such a rush to save children from the "horrible kidnapping-soul-sucking-epidemic-tragedy-worse-then-bird-flu" that is autism. Honestly...do these people think that attitude is helping their very aware autistic children? (Yes, even your non verbal ones are aware of what you say and what feelings are being directed at them - "non verbal" does not equal "stupid")
Do they not think their children know what is being said about them? Would a child *want* to progress in a world that sees him as evil and the bane of his family's existence? Why would he or she want to? People are just going to discriminate against and hate him or her anyway.
That's the lesson we learn at a very young age...that people *hate* what we are. It's called love, but it is perceived very differently.
People are willing to treat autistics with electroshocks, restraints, beatings, chelation, drugs, remedies that have not been scientifically proven (and have killed autistic children)....for what? All in the name of saving their "lost child" from autism, despite the fact that most prisons would not be allowed to treat their prisoners that way because it's "inhumane", "cruel and unusual punishment". There are people willing to kill their children all in the name of ridding autism from their lives.
There are parents who say they would rather their autistic child have cancer because at least he or she would just die but still 'love their parents'. This autistic child is going to live in a "soulless body" for his or her whole life. This child "died" at the age of two because of vaccines...or just the fact that autism always manifests at that age, vaccines or not.
Is that what it's all about? The autistic kid isn't affectionate the way parents want him to be? He didn't live up to their expectations? That was Karen McCarron's reason for killing her daughter. She didn't want people seeing that her kid was "slow".
I have yet to see a lot of NT (Neurotypical) kids be everything their parents wished them to be. Children are individual human beings and they are going to be different in some way or another.
This is the reality, folks. There is the true "evidence of harm". People can blame vaccines and such all they want, but there are a lot of us who did not get vaccines, did not get exposed to heavy metals (other than the musical variety) and who are one of other folks in the family who are on the autism spectrum. There is a lot of harm, worse harm, being done to children that is worse than anything a vaccine could ever do.
Folks say that vaccine additives are harmful. Does that excuse the other harmful things that are done to autistic children every day? In fact, that was brought up when I mentioned that chelation can be harmful - the answer was "Do you think thimerosal is harmful?"
Does that justify the deaths of autistics at the hands of those who want to see it stamped out of their lives?
Re: [poster's] commment -"because you deny that thimerosal causes autism" That's what it's all about, isn't it? "Thimerosal causes autism and that's it" in your little world? What about those of us who have never been injected with thimerosal yet are still autistic? Can you please explain that? What about the removal of thimerosal from vaccines in 2001?
We have a lot of little 6 years old and younger kids who are autistic who never got thimerosal because it was removed in from vaccines in 2001. How do you explain that?
If thimerosal is the *only* cause, then that position has a very big hole.
It may aggravate symptoms, it may be *one possible* cause, but there are enough autistic people who have never had thimerosal who are still very much autistic. How can one explain that?
[getting off the mercury thing for a minute]
What is it about autism that justifies abuse?
Why is it ok to test crack theories on autistic children?
Why is it ok to torture them, restrain them and force them to endure hours of therapy equal to an adult's work week?
Is it because autism is still relatively unknown?
Is it because humans are pack animals that do whatever they can to destroy or conform "differences" in the pack?
Is it because society's standards have changed?
Is it because many of the non-verbal autistic people out there cannot *say* anything?
Why? That is what I want to know.
Point taken, MD from TMOB,...loud and clear. Thank you for challenging me. That is greatest lesson I could have learned and I appreciate your vigilance and hope that your pojnt gets across to everyone out there...even if we don't always agree on everything.
