JDBentz: Just found a link to your post in my email. Sometimes I'm slow getting the email account into a decent state. I agree with the things you have said, and also I can attest from only my own experience to subtle forms of oppression I've experienced from "friends", boyfriends, landlords, neighbors.

I agree, and if a medical doctor or clinic encourages Autistic children to be aborted based solely on their Autism, then we are beyond "oppressed". If you told the press a child was aborted because it was Black or had Jewish parents (etc, etc) then there would be a firestorm of controversy. There would be no controversy "out there" if doctors told a parent "we can abort this (Autistic embryo) and you can try again for a (typical) child."

If you think parents wouldn't fall for this, and accept it, then remember that tests for Down's Syndrome are commonplace in nearly every pre-natal clinic in the free world. I refused to have these tests, but most parents do have them, and many children with a chromosome difference are aborted. If scientists are working hard, night and day, to find a way to dx us in the womb, so they can provide "information" to parents, that would allow parents to make (at least in the US) a legal choice to terminate based on Autistic tendencies, then isn't that legal genocide?

Another example: I have a close friend with high functioning Autism. She and her husband have been married for thirty-four years, have a business and a home, but they do not have children because her mother took her to a doctor and had her steralized when she was a child because she was labeled "re-d" and her mother had an "obligation" according to the doctors, to prevent more "re-d" children from coming into the world. They would be wonderful parents, but they aren't, and it breaks my heart.

If we were NOT oppressed, there would not be people making money off the enslavement of parents to the idea that we need to be "fixed" or even "terminated"?

People out there, please DO NOT get on your self-righteous soapbox and make this into a right to life, get rid of abortion thread and waste the point of what I am saying. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do NOT do that. This is a not the place for that. (Start your own thread for that, so I can ignore it easier )


The point...

The oppression comes, not in the abortion clinic or hospital, but in the minds of doctors and therapists that promote the idea that we are not worthy of life... or that our lives as they are do not matter.

Grrr. Our live's are worth no more than NT ones, get over it. I refuse to believe killing someone for being Autistic is any worse than killing them for any other reason.

Anyway, how about we rerwrite the diagnostic criteria as a description? For example, we'll take [URL=http://www.aspergers.com/aspcrit.htm]Gillberg's criteria[URL] for a rewrite...

becomes

Etc.

I love the idea of being recognized as minority group. There is too much misunderstanding about ASD...
I am rather afraid i won't be able to help though, at least not for now. I'm only 14 years old ;s

Anyhow, I'm for the suggestion on the first page that we need a "lawyer code" document and a "human text" document.
Keep up the good work for everyone.

We have a tendency to focus on a single subject, to the exclusion of others. While this can lead to problems, our exclusive focus on a single interest often results in the development of the person into an expert in their interest.

Furthermore, we often seek a stable routine, and can get rather distressed if this is disrupted.

Often, our development of language is delayed. Due to our natures, we find it difficult to understand non-verbal, vocal cues whilest listening, requiring the speaker to state the what they mean exactly, so that there is no confusion.

Our people are a very verbal people, and find non-verbal cues (body language) difficult to understand, as it does not come naturally to us.

Etc etc. It's a start...

I'm of the general opinion that we do appear to be some kind of minority, whether or not they acknowledge us as one. We:

(1). Prefer hanging out and intermarrying with those of our own group due to cultural similarities and clarity of speech. That is, it is often far easier to comprehend the actions of another person on the autistic spectrum than it is someone who is not.

(2). Many of us are incredibly verbal, even going so far as to put Internet communication and in-person communication on equal terms. After all, to many an Aspergian the only difference is the added tone of voice. This and other aspects of the diagnosis reflect a shared set of values and beliefs.

(3). We view ourselves as a "we" without even thinking about it. Most people with an illness or disorder do not self-identify with it. This alone implies a kind of shared consciousness or group identity. We see injustices as being done to "us".

There is a great deal of resistance to the idea of us being a political/social entity, but wouldn't it be interesting if these types of communications were exposed to the NT world? They'd be pretty hard-pressed to deny the existence of the minority.

Do we? Really? As for comprehension... not really. My friend is rather impulsive and will do things without any clear reasoning behind them, and he's an Aspie, while my Entie friends are generally more reasonable. As for intermarrying... is this actually the case? Could we crowdsource some information on this?

Hmm. Maybe intermarrying isn't the case. ;3 All I know for sure is that in my case, it'd be pretty hard for a NT person to deal with certain aspects of my personality (If we were that close, anyway). And know what they represent. My moods tend to be misinterpreted due to the tone of my voice. ;P "Mild Irritation" and "anger" do not always go together, for instance. Apparently people think I'm more "angry" than I really am for some reason. In fact, "anger" usually only comes into play when I perceive a "cruel" misinterpretation of something I did or said. It also happens to be the emotion I'm most likely to try and hide at this age. I can't prevent it from emerging, but I can prevent people from seeing it.

But to be frank, it's no coincidence that my closest friends are all Aspies. They catch on to what I mean far faster in Roleplay and otherwise. And vice versa. It'd be interesting to get a forum-wide poll on the subject.

This post was last modified: 11-03-2011 11:12 PM by Shenmue654.

raew wrote:

Reading this made me absolutely furious! Not only should this sort of thing be banned, but she should be able to sue her stupid mother and the doctors for violating her human rights. (I would put an angry face here but I can't work out how to do it, so I'll post a sad one istead)

Below is a quote from an article Published on Friday, July 21, 2000 in Neue Zuricher Zeitung (Switzerland.) I don't know if the information is still in date. http://www.commondreams.org/views/072100-106.htm

I'm guessing that the friend mentioned in the quote may be a victim of this appalling episode in Americas history. I don't know how accurate it is or if the information is still relevant. But the fact that none of the victims have been able to claim back compensation is very disturbing. I guess the states that are the target of any compensation claim are just hoping that the victims will just die off and lose the will to fight them in court. This is a clear and frightening example of minority group oppression.

I don't agree with just abort all the autistic fetuses either, :/ but I also admit you can't just equate it to killing it for any other reason. The reasons for killing a black fetus would be *different*. You just don't like the ethnicity or skin color there. Killing a fetus because it's black is different, that is just race, now if black somehow came with potential issues or struggles it would be a different reason. Also, since it isn't like the reasons for aborting a black fetus (just cos you don't like black people and that's it), the whole thing about your life being worth no more than someone without any issues doesn't make sense, since they aren't saying 'we hate you and your life isn't worth much'. It isn't just some weird thing people have, thinking  the reasons for aborting a black fetus is totally wrong but less so with an autistic one, there's a difference and you have to admit that. I know I might be shot down just for speaking the truth because it seems it's some protection to say it is all the same (any reason for killing a fetus) and not different at all, but whatever.

Oh, and I didn't mean tangible protection for the fetuses, I meant protection for you, mentally. more like extra protection since you could already say you shouldn't just abort them even without trying to ignore that there is no difference between killing a fetus for it's skin color or killing a fetus for having autism.

This post was last modified: 11-18-2011 09:40 PM by mels8780.

I don't really think it's possible to justify abortion for one reason and not for another. Either they're human, and it's murder, or they're not, and it's acceptable. If it's wrong to terminate an Autist fetus, it's wrong to terminate an Entie fetus; likewise, if it's wrong to terminate a fetus of one race, it's wrong to terminate a fetus of another. Motivation should not come into ethics - into morality, perhaps, but not into ethics.

Errr, have you been paying attention to history over the past few centuries?

Even today, being black carries much greater risk of:
* Poverty
* Unemployment
* Jail
* Being a Gangsta Rapper

And even if I can prove that being black is a struggle... that doesn't justify terminating black foetuses on that basis.

I like this. However it is done, we should definitely lobby for our rights, but we will need non-autistic people to champion this cause initially due to the one dominant obstacle to us, that is our social skills and differences. We should seek out lawyers and politicians interested in making a name for themselves and get their aid, preferably ones with charisma.

One question, what can the members of this community do to help gather support for this?
Classic ideas such as rally's and whatnot may be a good place to start, but anything the community can proactively do to help push this through should be mentioned.

This post was last modified: 04-27-2012 07:39 PM by Mordeth_kai.