Aspies For Freedom

This person posted their opinions on a forum and its very interesting. Bold highlight is mine.

"The UK pro-life organization SPUC today publicized a BBC news item indicating US and Swiss doctors believe they will one day be able to reverse the symptoms of Down's Syndrome. The late, renowned geneticist, Dr. Jerome LeJeune, who in 1959 discovered the genetic
cause of Down's syndrome, was also convinced that a treatment for Downs was possible.

The researchers referred to in the BBC report, Professor William Mobley from Stanford University and his colleagues, say they have found a gene which is responsible for mental impairment. They are researching whether a drug could eventually be developed to reactivate the part of the brain that is affected by Down's. However, they stress that their work has a long way to go before any results might be seen.

Dr. Lejeune gained international fame in 1958 when he discovered the Trisomy 21 genetic defect responsible for Down Syndrome. Although the world-famous researcher believed a cure or treatment was possible, he was sadly unable to obtain the funding required to complete the necessary research that he continued with limited resources for many years.

The majority of Dr. LeJeune's funding came from parents, extended families and friends of Downs children. A wider interest was just not there for a condition that the medical and research establishment preferred to respond to with abortion rather than treatment. Better search and destroy techniques have received the emphasis in order to more effectively diagnose Downs pre-borns at early stages so that they could be aborted. Currently in developed nations a large percentage of Downs children are identified and killed before birth.

Professor William Mobley and his associates may also find that the now highly developed and routine search and destroy techniques will make it difficult to find research funds for a condition that is simply disposed of via abortion.


http://www.catholic-pages.com/forum/topi...IC_ID=2652

Well this forum is for Genetic and related issues, so I think its covered.

But there is a connection, lots of those with down's have autism too.
Some families have children with both conditions. Overall its a very complex picture.
There is autism then there are fragile x, angelman syndrome, and down's syndrome, that are genetic and can cause autism.

"Yes that's so, but this guy has a source of up-to-date knowledge, and with a little encouragement from the admin?...

maybe he could do a thread or two?"

Do you mean the person in the first post? I am currently communicating with them about the issue, and have told them about AFF.

A very simple rule to remember with genetics in general:
if something is known to be passed on genetically, all that geneticists need to discover exactly how to search for a trait using just DNA is time, funding and data.

the researchers funded by groups such as CAN have plenty of funding, they have data from AGRE so that just leaves time. they need to spend a lot of time analysing the available data.

question is - how do we slow them down long enough to give us a chance at educating society?

AGRE is based on a university campus in the US named rutgers (http://www.rutgers.edu). Ironically enough, the lab where they store the autism tissue samples is called the nelson biological lab (my surname is nelson).

We need legal ways to slow them down. Get thinking people.

forgot to mention, the campus on which the nelson biological labs are located is:
New Brunswick/Piscataway - Busch

I never said it would take a short amount of time, but you understand my point about it taking only time as a resource. It doesn't require much advanced new technology we don't currently have.

We also have no idea how far advanced some of this research is. Some companies will be secretive with their products and aim to make maximum profit on a cure.

Knowing the genetic causes of autism should be good. But the problem is it'll be abused until society is better educated. They don't need very reliable tests either, just a test which shows a "strong risk".

Picture the scene:
Doctor: "i'm sorry, but it appears your child is at risk of having autism"
*Both parents sob*
*abortion*

understand?

Well autistic women have been told that, and been pushed into abortions as they are deemed incapable, so I am very wary on that.

Severely *** is hard to evalute though, as it can be taken from IQ, and those tests are not useful for autistics very often.

What about for autistics who appear 'low functioning', I think the tests are completely invalid. Look at Sue Rubin.

tenaciousj, they focus on downs for a simple reason. They were looking for a cure for years, just like they are doing for autism, but instead of a cure they found a prenatal test. So they use it as much as pregnant mothers permit.

If they found prenatal tests for any other conditions they would also use it. They routinely do tests for spina bifida too.

Its not parents knowing, its far, far more complex than that.
Embryology used to be a special interest of mine. A baby can have signs of spina bifida in the womb, which can heal up before birth and not be a problem (in a minority of cases), yet if detected, the parents will face pressure to abort.
Also spina bifida has degrees, some can have full lives, marriage, kids, jobs etc.
In fact many were targeted by the government here to get them off disability and into full time work. Yet at the fetal stage they are being killed.

When I said the government here, I meant the UK government, but I imagine its similar in most places.

"We are living in a society that is leaving parents increasingly unable to care for normal children, leave alone any that might have "special needs"."

Exactly! Society needs to change, not by parents having to make the most drastic choice in humanity, killing their own child, but by getting support, financial help, and letting their child be treated with dignity. If we harm the most helpless beings in society, the unborn, what hope for the rest of us in an hour of need?

"A lot of things I hear revolve around some flaky deity objecting, but to paraphrase the same song, god must be dead if I am alive."

Well I dont base any of my views on God personally. I view it as a humanity issue.