Autism awareness..........?

Question

How many people would be willing to donate money to Autism Speaks to find a cure. Honestly. Because 1 in 166* children are being diagnosed with autism and a cure should be found. If you say yes, please donate at least a dollar. Everything helps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*based from 2006

to all the people that said yes thank you so much! ive worked with autistic children ages 3-19 for the past year and a half and they mean a lot to me and im 14. for those with an autistic friend or family member i hope that one day soon a cure is found. thank you so much!

Answer 1

No. I worry that instead of finding a cure or ways to help autistic people, their research will reveal a way to diagnose autism during pregnancy and that that would lead to abortions, rather than cures. Preventing autistic children from being born is not a cure, that's more like some sort of ethnic cleansing. That's what's happening with Down's syndrome now. People are ignorant about it and fear it and would rather abort a child and try to convince themselves that they're doing the child a favor with that, while many of them are really just not willing to have their lives "interrupted" by caring for a disabled or different child. I'm sad that this is happening with Down's syndrome and I don't want it to happen with autism too.

Autism Speaks has a bad rep in the autistic community. From what I've heard, Autism Speaks' idea of a "cure" is preventing autistic individuals from being born in the first place. They also have no autistic employees or board members and ignore the opinions of autistic individuals and don't let their voices get heard. I think there is a reason to be concerned and to question their motives.

So no, I won't be donating money to Autism Speaks, but I'd happily donate to organizations who are researching ways to improve the life of autistic individuals and who value the input and opinions of autistic individuals.

Answer 2

I believe this is a good cause but I also think that  kids are being overdiagnosed and these families are getting benefits that other parents aren't getting.  As a school employee, there are several poor social skilled children from poor social skilled parents that are diagnosed and it is not right. I think finding a test to prove the  disablilty would be helpful....like a child with Down Syndrome .

Just my 2 cents.  

Answer 3

I would NOT donate to  Autism Speaks!  

"Autism Speaks, which claims to speak for autism, has no autistic employees or board members with autism and is viewed as a bully by many autistic individuals who feel that the organization engages in tactics that marginalize their voices and contribute to an environment that hurts the lives of those with Autism"

www.wrongplanet.net

Answer 4

My son is autistic.  I raised over $500 for the autism walk.  It took very little effort.  Friends, family and strangers all donated.  Incidentally, I am a classroom teacher.  I see all manifestations of the disability.

Before everyone jumps on the answerer above, I think it is valid to say that there may be some over diagnosis on the very high end of the spectrum.  I'm pretty certain my nephew could be diagnosed with asperger's.  He holds a responsible job and functions well, so a diagnosis would make little difference.  At the low functioning end of the spectrum, some of these children, my son being one,  would have been diagnosed with mental retardation a generation ago.  (I'm using the term as it is used in a medical diagnosis) But the bit of over diagnosis is unimportant.  Something critical is happening when 1:166 children fit somewhere on the spectrum.  We absolutely have to fund research.  The medical community needs to take more interest in what is causing this.  Why is it that our human gene pool is changing so rapidly?

Answer 5

I already have donated to help find a cure. I have also refured many people to autism speaks for information along with the autism soucity.  I work with teenagers with low functioning autism.

My daughter has also done a brain study with UCLA on autism. They take brain scans of her "normal" brain and compare it to "autistics" brains. This way they could possibility find a difference in the brain structure to find a cure. She has done this for the past 5 yrs. Her way to find a cure for autism.

If you cannot give money then give time with these wonderful students. You could help in the classroom, or with special olympics. There is still so much they just don't know.