The research into removing diabetes alone from the gene pool is worth billions of dollars, so normies won't have far to go in thinking "why are we not researching how to rid ourselves of Aspies? It's genetic..."
You're quite right about that, and they already are researching a prenatal test for autism.
Unfortunately, it will not help the situation to pretend that maybe if we don't say it's genetic, they won't notice.
Yes. the race has begun. See this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7013251
If someone could make a test and then have a treatment ...... Apparently, there are estimated to be 100 million people with autism and if there is a drug to treat it then someone could make billions of dollars.
But risperdal? Come on. Read the side effects. I could not imagine being forced to take this medication.
http://www.risperdal.com/
and for someone born in the 1970s to only learn they are an Aspie when they are in their latter twenties should be grounds for a lawsuit as far as I am concerned.
How about someone born in the 1980s who had details of the diagnosis "witheld" from him and his family for 4 years until he was 19 by doctors who thought that not telling a patient they have AS was the best course of action? (I think their basis was it might upset my mother - lol) 
The people I have asked have all been Aspies, none of whom have any Aspie relatives. Granted, I have only asked about thirty, but when I ask thirty from three different countries and get a strike rate of zero, it does make me wonder.
Hi Iron_Man. Just from my personal experience, myself and my daughter are "typical" Aspies. Two of my three sisters displayed signs of AS, (stimming, social interaction problems) the daughter but not the son of one of these sisters has just been diagnosed with AS. My paternal grandfather was an artist, speaking to those relatives who remember him, he displayed several of what are now AS qualities: social problems, preferred his own company, extremely intelligent, stimming. My NT husband's older brother is AS, never formally diagnosed, but a brilliant engineer, totally no social interaction. Luckily he comes from a culture where arranged marriage is the norm; he has two sons, both of whom display mild AS symptoms.
Whew! I never sat down and enumerated it like this before - what a lot of us there are just in these two families! :o
Alison
I think autism is a cruel Darwinian experiment being conducted on the human race by nature, god, or some other higher being. It is probably true that most if not all the advancements in science and technology came from people like us. But these came from the few exceptional individuals. Most of us will not go on to create an earth shattering theory like relativity or come out with a market monoplizing operating system. If you think about it, most people with autism are LFA. I'm sure HFA and Aspies are not the majority of autistic people. It's like some experiment where a batch of specimens is subjected to mutating radiation. Most of the subjects will end for the worse. A small few may end up with some benefits. An even smaller exceptional few will end up with major benefits.
If you think about it, most people with autism are LFA. I'm sure HFA and Aspies are not the majority of autistic people.
You haven't got this quite right, Theosoph.
Estimated population of autistic spectrum disorders in the UK
People with learning disabilities (IQ under 70)(Almost all of these people will require a high level of support throughout their lives)
UK Children: Kanner's 6,700. Other Spectrum Disorders 20,000
UK Adults: Kanner's Adults 22,700. Other Spectrum Disorders: 68,200
All ages: Kanner's 29,400. Other Spectrum Disorders: 88,200
UK Total: 117,600
People with average or high ability (IQ 70 or above).
( Many, perhaps most of these people, will become semi or fully independent as adults but need understanding and help as children) AspergerChildren 48,100 Other Spectrum Disorders: 46,700
Asperger Adults: 163,600. Other Spectrum Disorders: 159,000
All Ages: Asperger's 211,700. Other Spectrum Disorders: 205,700
UK Total: 417,400
Source: NAS
http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=299&a=3527
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Stella
Stella,
Perhaps I was wrong but that remains to be proven. The stats you provided are estimates. The link where they came from admits that quantifying the number of autistic people is a most difficult thing to do. Maybe HFAs and Aspies do outnumber LFAs but LFAs are just more visible. I haven't heard of any indepth studies of the breakdown of autistic people. Just counting all the HFAs and Aspies would pose all kinds of problems.
If the IQ of all autistic people is put on a graph with the number of people on the Y axis and the IQ level on the X axis, it may resemble the classic bell shaped curve. Most autistics would be in the middle somewhere with a very few to the extreme right or left. Statistcally this would mean an autistic person would have a equal chance of being a genius or ***.
It's as if autistics are born into the crap game of life with higher risks and higher rewards than NTs. We may win big but we also lose big.
I hope I'm not boring you all with my rambling thoughts.
Not all of the Kanner-autistics have accompanying additional learning difficulties though. It's not as simple as a bell curve.
Not all of the Kanner-autistics have accompanying additional learning difficulties though. It's not as simple as a bell curve.
But many do have learning difficulties. I can see why some of use want to separate AS from autism.
Not all of the Kanner-autistics have accompanying additional learning difficulties though. It's not as simple as a bell curve.
But many do have learning difficulties. I can see why some of use want to separate AS from autism.
So you think to look down on those of us diagnosed with Kanner's? Tut tut!
Stella
So you think to look down on those of us diagnosed with Kanner's? Tut tut!
Stella
I didn't mean me. There are those among us who do feel this way. That's why they say AS is not an autism spectrum disorder and has nothing to do with autism.
Trying to estimate the numbers of HFA LFA and AS people based on your ownexperience is an exercise in futility. Unless you've visited all parts of the country, in addition to being endowed with the ability to accurately diagnose all ASDs on sight, you cannot know how many fall into each category.
As more and more is known about autism, we should get a clearer picture of the distribution of LFA, HFA and in-between. It was my understanding that the distribution would follow a bell curve and that there would actually be few LFA out of all people with autism spectrum conditions.
Yeah, I must admit to being rather sceptical of those ideas.
I've got anecdotal evidence to suggest that ASD is hereditary. Out of the dozen or so known Aspies I've met, all of them have at least one parent and/or sibling showing ASD traits too. Of the parents of Aspie kids I've met, nearly all also show some ASD features. I also think both my parents showed some Aspie traits, as do at least two of my siblings and other relatives on my father's side of the family.