This column in the Daily Mail is one of the worst things I’ve read in a while. It’s not just shocking because someone wrote it but it was believed to offer an opinion that others would share.
Sadly, I believe it is the case that a majority of people would agree with this writer. But for me, the selfishness of this writer is just sickening. She writes of a few families with autistic children including a boy named Tom. She writes of their struggles and then says it would be better if the child were aborted. In order to cut to the chase I’ll give you the last few lines of the column:
In any case, that is a difficult question after the event: it is hard for a mother retrospectively to wish away a living child who, come what may, she loves.
But looking on, as a relatively dispassionate observer; looking at the damage done, the absence of hope and the anguish of the poor child himself, do I think that everyone concerned would have been better off if Tom’s had been a life unlived?
Unequivocally, yes.
Well the one thing which jumps out at me is she must understand that it wouldn’t be a life unlived, it would merely be a life cut very short. You can’t argue that a baby in the womb is not a life. That’s just not logical.
Look, the truth is that I’m sure autistic children make some aspects of life very difficult. But all children are difficult in one way or another. Children are difficult. And rewarding in ways we couldn’t fathom before having them.
So what this writer is really talking about is killing babies so we can be more selfish. But I guess that’s what it’s always been about. May God have mercy on us all.
January 18, 2009 at 2:48 pm
It’s very arrogant and stupid at the same time. We don’t even really get proper comments from the mother about how she really feels.
And while I don’t know anyone who has autism, I have seen children born with Downs syndrome. And when I was at mass and we came to the Sign of Peace, that child easily had the most love to give.
January 19, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I am a teacher, and find the occasional high functioning ASD young person I teach (in Mainstream – gcse and KS3) to be polite, quiet, and studious – and often very capable in the subject. I simply adjust my teaching style so that instructions are clear and precise, and I don’t make too many off-the-cuff jokes. They have great powers of concentration if treated sympathetically, and where there is sufficient discipline in the class to allow them to concentrate. If they ever start eliminating babies with the ASD gene I expect they will eliminate many capable scientific researchers. Ironic really
March 5, 2009 at 2:37 am
I believe, Daily Mail published this article to spite me because I’m a woman with autism who dared to stand up to them when they wrote nasty things about me in the past which weren’t even true. I complained and got carried away with my emails calling Daily Mail racist, xenophobic and disablist women-hating paper. They did not like it. This horrible article in the Daily Mail was published on Jan 15 2009 – on the very day I sat next to Gary McKinnon as his peer support worker during our biggest press conference for Save Gary campaign. He is autistic, he is fighting extradition to US for unauthorised accessing of Pentagon computers in his obsessive search for UFO’s. Gary never had any support for his autism and lost every job he’s had because of the bullying and rejection for his social difficulties and he just flipped. He got obsessed with the wrong thing. Even after his official diagnosis he’s had no help and support for his autism, he has severe panic attacks and is feeling suicidal because he’s facing up to 70 years in the US jail. Gary is 43. Autistic children grow up to be autistic adults. I was on-off nonverbal as a child and doctors told my parents that I may be institutionalised. My parents didn’t listen and educated me spending their every bit of money to give me the best education possible. I have since been to University and am now married with two autistic sons of my own. English is my second language and Britain is my home. After 19 years of living here I still have a foreign accent but it’s only Daily Mail that picks on me for that. British people are not Daily Mail. I have problems with face to face communication because of my autism but we’re working hard campaigning at grassroots level to change things for autistic people and we will change things. I’m so glad I’ve found this blog, it is wonderful and the comments from all the people made me cry because it proves that we matter, our autistic children matter and generally human beings are decent good kind people who care about each other. Thank God for the alternative means of communication like blogs. I was scared that everyone thinks like Daily Mail but it’s not the case. The world is not such a bad place after all (and I definitely would not want to be aborted). Rozagy http://www.myspace.com/rozagy or Nadine Stavonina de Montagnac
November 29, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I have a 9 year old with severe autism. I will not tell you what a joy he is or blessing he is. I'd be lying if I did. I'd be lying if I told you my life is not a million times better without the burden. I am not evil. I am a woman who did the best she could and got stretched thin. my sons behavior was extreme, much like tom, the stress began affecting my mental health. I began having panic attacks, I tried medication it almost killed me. I had a nervous breakdown and sent him with the state 17 months ago. Ever since, I've been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. He traumatized me. Geez I guess I'm too much of a victim for an evil person wouldn't you agree? They ask do I want him back. No, I can't. Why would I want to live like that again? In that hellhole? No, you can't make me, you can't guilt me into it. Most parents guilt themselves into staying. There is nothing wrong with residential care. There is nothing wrong with aborting autistic fetuses, people already do it with down syndrome, and down syndrome is a piece of cake compared to what autism does. So to all you judgmental know it alls, shove it:):)