Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Sarah Palin, Autism Speaks and neurodiversity: Some Irony?

It has been in the news lately that Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin who has a nephew with autism recently participated in a walk for autism speaks. Ms. Palin also has the distinction of being solidly pro-life as far as her political position on abortion goes. She has also given birth to a son with Down's syndrome rather than aborting him when he was still a fetus. According to Ari Ne'eman and other neurodiversity proponents, the peer review literature states that 90% of all pregnancies resulting in a Down's fetus are terminated by abortion. This means that Ms. Palin was in the 10% of mothers who carried her Down's child to term and did not abort him.

One neurodiversity blogger, the autism bitch from hell in one of her posts went so far as to say that the only thing on autism speaks' agenda was developing a prenatal test with the intent of being able to abort autistic fetuses. This means that in reality the funding that AS provides to study mu wave rhythm suppression, research on functional magnetic resonance imaging studies and the other things are just a front. They are not really doing this, or somehow funding research on brain waves will ultimately result in finding a way to abort every single autistic fetus that comes along. Even more interesting is the fact that they have given nearly half a million dollars to neurodiversity ideologue Laurent Mottron. This must mean that somehow Mottron's research will lead to a prenatal test to detect autism. When I pointed out the absurdity of the post to her and pointed out that all she had to do was go to autism speaks website and see all of the studies that this organization funds where the connection between them and developing a prenatal test for autism is certainly difficult to understand, ABFH changed the wording of her post from "the only thing on their agenda" to "their ultimate goal".

Considering Palin's pro life stance, the fact that she would be part of the one in ten mothers who carried her Down's baby to term and did not abort him, you would think she would be the darling of the neurodiversity movement. They should be chanting, "The white house needs a new resident, in 2012 Palin for president". But somehow ASAN and the other organizations are silent in their endorsement of Palin.

I wonder how neurodiversitites explain Palin's involvement with autism speaks. This organization they claim has a goal of finding ways to deliberately abort autistic fetuses. Why then would a woman who solidly opposes abortion and did what ND's should love, i.e., keeping a Down's child baby would support autism speaks, the organization they hate so much? Does anyone else besides me see some irony here? Of course there is probably some explanation which eludes me. So far, when I wondered why Michelle Dawson would continue to work in the Mottron group and why she had not resigned in protest when she so clearly loathes autism speaks I have just heard the unbelievable statement from her that "science isn't politics". So I suppose ND's might have an explanation for the anti-abortion, Down's syndrome child mother, Sara Palin's involvement in this organization that they hate so much.

I suspect though that this just yet another reason to just say no to neurodiversity

9 comments:

......I'm Anonymous said...

Jonathan,

I don't really think Sarah Palin is largely on the minds of those in ND. This is the 2nd post about abortion you have done, I'm not sure how this helps you or anyone else on the spectrum today so why use any energy on it? Rather than being a critic, why don't you offer some answers?

farmwifetwo said...

I have another "theory" as well.

If with the use of gene therapy, stem cell therapy or drug therapy, you are able to have a severe autistic become a mild autistic, then the HFA (ASAN/Hub) crowd will lose support b/c gov'ts and others will wonder why they cannot be independant of gov't services.

Also, if this happens, they can no longer claim to speak for those who are on the severe end of the spectrum if they can now speak for themselves.

I have HUGE doubts that after gene/stem cell/medications that these new HFA autistics are going to agree with the current ASAN/ND crowd that being LFA was "glorious", "joyful" and "a difference not a disability".

I have this OPINION since they oppose Autism Speaks/CAN and the research on autism they have been doing.

Have you ever read Portia Iverson's "Strange Son" it's about her drive to start Cure Autism Now and her relationship with Tito and his Mom. A must read. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227142.Strange_Son

S.

jonathan said...

Anonymous, you might start by reading more of my blog. The answers that I have offered are to do research to find a cure for autism, to do scientific research that ND rejects having been done.

Another answer is maybe spending half a million dollars on some job training programs for autistic people rather than giving it to Laurent Mottron and Michelle Dawson.

The sad truth is that the prognosis for most with autism is poor and there are no easy short term answers or quick fixes.

I believe writing about abortion is relevant given the fact that it is a big concern of ND's and there is so much inconsistency on their stance regarding it.

jonathan said...

Farm wife: Yes, I read portia's book, but don't remember much of it. I agree with the rest of what you are saying.

SM69 said...

I would agree with ...I'm Anonymous, wow what a photo!

Responding to M on previous post is more important. I have nothing to add to this subject again, but I appreciate J that you are making an effort to entertain us.

navywifeandmom said...

"If with the use of gene therapy, stem cell therapy or drug therapy, you are able to have a severe autistic become a mild autistic, then the HFA (ASAN/Hub) crowd will lose support b/c gov'ts and others will wonder why they cannot be independant of gov't services."

That's pretty much ND in a nutshell. If a cure was found, they'd lose a lot of their credibility. No more government funding for a disability that has a cure.

I guess I cannot grasp why a person would remain disabled if he/she doesn't have to? That's the only reason I can think of.

John Best said...

Navywife,
Neuronitwits are not disabled at all. They are merely trying to alter the definition of autism through their propaganda to have autism redefined as "nerdism" and sweep the real autistics under the rug.

SM69 said...

Rodger

Thanks for sharing this information on AS. Whilst I appreciate you did not write this but Anon did, would you or someone else be kind enough to explain to a non-US person like me what is an IRS Form 990 and give me an indication of how likely correct these statements are? It seems more than extravagant and highly unethical and I find really incredible that such things could take place. I mean their web site is OK but not that good, $830K for this, it’s madness! Of course the jet planes etc are even worse still.

I made our web site in my own free spare time, as I tend to mess around on the computer a lot, by default. Today we received a quote for a professional site for £1600 which we brought down to £1000. The mock site looks amazing. I asked that that our charity goes for it, saying that I’ll pay for it in 5 installments of £200. It looks that we are micro particles in term of expenses by comparison.

In the UK accounts are independently audited, we would never get research funding if our accounts were including that type of expensive. Honestly, the system is failing if such organization can actually do this. Can someone please tell me how real these claims/facts are?

jypsy said...

This AS IRS info has been out there for more than 2 years. Here is the AS 2005 990. Here is the 2006 990.

"Form 990 is an annual reporting return that certain federally tax-exempt organizations must file with the IRS. It provides information on the filing organization's mission, programs, and finances." (From this FAQ)

As I understand it (I'm not in the USA), you don't want to be caught lying to the IRS so these forms/statements should be fairly accurate. I stand to be corrected.