Curing Autism vs. Accepting Autism?

There are researchers that are trying to find a cure for autism. There are also people that say that there is nothing wrong with having autism and that they should not find a cure for it, but just accept autism as more of a personality trait.

What do you guys think?

Is it wrong to try to find a cure? Or is it more wrong not to?

I have to partly agree with strictnon-conformist. My 7 yr old son has Atypical Autism, now i don't believe in saying that he has a disease and needs to have a cure. The things we try to do is help him with the problems he faces, my son is not diseased his brain is wired a bit differently to our own.

If the doctors said they found a pill that could take it all away would i give it? I probably would at the end of the day what parent wouldn't want them to lead a easier life but i don't think that's going to happen, so the key is to figure out new strategies and coping methods for the people of all forms of Autism.

They should look for what causes it to try and help, as with all things. Historically, look at the diseases and disorders that are no longer a problem! Of course we should keep on looking for cures for everything.

ACCEPTING autism, with some help too.

I have Asperger's syndrome and I would never, ever want a cure.

But some cases of autism can be very severe, and they do need a lot of help.

If Autism Speaks, Defeat Autism Now, and Cure Autism Now weren't full of crap in trying to convince you and everyone with a wallet that autism is a disease process and an epidemic, the reality would be more clearly seen that it isn't something that can be cured, because it isn't a disease or a disease process: it's a naturally-occurring neurological difference in the same way that a dog and a cat are wired differently, and one isn't a diseased/disordered version of the other.

While raising the false hope of the others around them for a "cure" autistics almost inevitably are harmed in their attempts, if not physically from all the biomedical "treatments" to make them seem more normal, then at least from the behavioral reprogramming they attempt, which forces the autistic to bend away from the natural way they function in hardware and emulate it in software, and live a lie that's very stressful to maintain, and won't hold up under pressure, either. This is psychologically damaging to the autistic, and leads to burnout down the road, not to mention it teaches them that the way they are naturally is defective, and perhaps even morally wrong, because they "aren't like everyone else." and there are many wackos that actually believe that autism is a manifestation of evil spirits inside the person (yes, sadly, they do exist). Groups that presume to speak for autistics (the three mentioned above are definitely on that list, though there are some useful organizations that do good things) and don't let them in on the decision process (the groups I mentioned) are all about raising money to eradicate those that exist, either by reprogramming them and pronouncing them "cured" when they seem sufficiently normal, or by figuring out how to determine whether they're likely to be autistic while in the womb, so they can be aborted. In other words, eugenics.

Far better is to figure out how to teach everyone the things they need to be able to do to function in the real world and be productive, happy people, regardless of how seemingly odd they may act, so long as they don't harm others: this applies to everyone. There tend to be medical/sensory issues common to those on the spectrum that most "normal" people don't have any experience with, and it'd be nice to have more understanding of that, and work to reduce the issues there. Sensory issues are actually one of the biggest reasons why there's communication problems for many autistics to even process incoming audio for speech as well as output of speech, and it isn't necessarily a solid indication of intelligence if they're non-verbal: it may very well indicate that they've got insensitive processing of what their body is doing, or are too sensitive to incoming sensory input such that it all comes across in a manner best described as the sort of overload you'd get if you hold a microphone that you speak into too close to the speaker the sound is coming out, creating a nasty feedback loop and driving all input to look the same. This sort of sensory issue also explains why not everyone can be fully potty-trained, because you can't train to control something you effectively can't feel or control.

So, the summary of all I've said: it's wrong to try to find a cure for something that isn't a disease and is a pervasive part of a person, but it's right to figure out how to help people live to their maximum capacity for functionality and happiness.