Aspies For Freedom

I'm just posting this to try and give everyone an idea of what exactly influences how easy or difficult it is to develop a prenatal test for ASDs.

autism is a genetically complex disorder.  Pretty much that means that it is influenced by more than one gene.  It is also probably influenced by environmental factors.  
So, multiple genes are in play, and no one gene determines whether or not someone is autistic.
Furthermore, diagnostic criteria for autism are much less objective than those for, say, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome (a disorder characterized by uncontrollable urges to mutilate oneself) making it more difficult to firmly establish the line between autistic adn not autistic, an important factor in linkage studies.
So to compare Lesch-Nyhan syndrome and autism, LNS is determined by a single gene, which definitively determines whether or not a person has LNS.  LNS is fairly distinct as a syndrome and is difficult to mistake for anything else (few non LNS toddlers try to gouge their eyes out with crayons).  Autism is influenced by many genes, spread across several chromosomes, none of which definitively determines whether someone has autism, and is also influenced by environmental factors.

What it boils down to is that autism is extremely complex, and any single gene cant tell you much unless you have pinpointed all the otehr genes too and know about the environmental factors also.

I have seen firsthand how this kind of research is done.  The statistics involved are WAY more complex than anything you've seen in news articles.  It hurts my head jsut thinking about it.  And that was just on chromosome 17.  Autism has been linked to nearly half the chromosomes humans HAVE.  Trust me when I say that its nowhere near as simple as the media makes it out to be.
Besides that, there's more than jsut genes affecting autism.  little bits and pieces attached to DNA can influence things, as well as how the chromosome is folded, not to mention environmental factors.

Peopel keep comparing autism to Downs.  Downs syndrome isnt a valid comparison because it is fundamentally different, in that it is a chromosomal abnormality rather than a genetic polymorphism.


My summary:
Autism is so mind-bogglingly complex that trying to find a prenatal test that works better than flipping a coin is a lot like trying to solve a rubix cube with no eyes.  Im not exaggerating (much).

Nemidaelius, the eugenicists aren't trying to identify a single gene as a test for autism.  What they intend to do, as described by Dr. Joseph Buxbaum in a February 2005 interview with MSNBC, is to identify a large number of autism-related genes, such that the presence of all (or a significant percentage) of these genes can be deemed a positive result on a prenatal test.

Let's look at this issue from a worst-case-scenario perspective.  If Dr. Buxbaum and others who share his view are mistaken, as you believe, then we will have lost nothing by discussing the issue.  At the very least, we will have raised public awareness of the fact that society's prejudice against the autistic population is so extreme that many groups and governmental entities are seeking to develop a prenatal test.

If, on the other hand, those who believe that a prenatal test cannot be developed are wrong, and if we have all been lulled into inaction by mistakenly assuming that it is not a serious risk, most of the world's autistic population could be destroyed within a generation.

I do not advocate giving up on discussion of prenatal testing.  I simply think everyone should be aware of just how difficult it is to develop such a test, and how unlikely it is that one will appear anytime soon.  If you actually wanted to prevent large scale eugenics-style testing then the important thing to do is raise public awarenes...  Thats about it actually.