A medical Pandora's box: DNA testing for autism opens doors to selective abortions

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

Below is an editorial from the Calgary Herald about the extremely important

issue of autism and eugenics. With the unfortunate focus on " cure " coming

from many major autism organizations in the United States, there is a

growing risk that technological advancement will outstrip our ability to use

it wisely. This is a matter that has been discussed at length within the

autistic community and it is past time that it be addressed by society at

large as one of the most important ethical issues of our time.

Regards,

Ari Ne'eman

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, President

http://www.autisticadvocacy.org

info@...

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Tuesday » January

22 » 2008

A medical Pandora's box

DNA testing for autism opens doors to selective abortions

Calgary Herald

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Medical advancements hailed as long-awaited breakthroughs often come with a

sobering ethical flip side. Also, all too often, the advancements come

before the debate on their accompanying ethics has begun.

Researchers at the Autism Consortium in Boston, as well as at Toronto's

Hospital for Sick Children, have located a chromosomal link to autism that

could lead to genetic testing for the disorder.

The Boston group found that children with a duplicated or missing segment of

chromosome 16, which appears to control certain brain functions, have a risk

for autism 100 times greater than normal. The Toronto researchers plan to

offer DNA testing as soon as they can.

While a DNA test done on a newborn baby would be of tremendous benefit in

obtaining early intervention and therapy for the child, thus fostering a

much better outcome, the test could also determine if a fetus is affected.

That opens up a Pandora's box of potential for selective abortion of these

fetuses.

Autism is not just one condition; it is a wide gamut of them, with not only

a broad range of symptoms of communications and social dysfunctions, but

within that range of symptoms, there are also wide degrees of impairment.

At the higher functioning end of the autism spectrum are individuals with

Asperger's syndrome and, while they often suffer various social impairments,

they are usually highly intelligent and productive people. For example, some

scientists think that Mozart's unsurpassed musical genius was an indication

that he may have been autistic.

The danger with a prenatal test is that it will create a situation in which

the value of an individual's life will be determined based on assumptions

about his or her cognitive functions.

It is not just that future Mozarts could be terminated, but that the value

of any person lies in his or her intrinsic humanity, not in gradations of

intellectual ability or chromosomal misfirings.

The richness and joy that an individual brings to his or her family, friends

and the larger world are measured not by intelligence levels, cognitive

disabilities or any other limitation. The only thing that counts is the

uniqueness of that person, made up of all the traits and qualities that have

never been found in any other human in just such a combination.

The runaway pace of medical technology will force us to decide what kind of

society we want -- one where each individual has inviolable value, or one

where the vulnerable who are most in need of our care and concern are weeded

out because we can't see past their " defects " to the person beneath.

The debate can be put off no longer.

© The Calgary Herald 2008

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