Disease or Mutation?
Is anyone you know Autistic? CNN reports over half a million adults are living with Autism in the United States. That number will increase as more children with the condition reach maturity. The Center for Disease control estimates that one child in 150 is affected.
None of us can imagine what it’s like. Thanks to YouTube, one adult with Autism has reached out to the world. Through her video "In My Language,", Amanda Baggs describes with elegance what its like to live in a world created for others - a stranger in a strange land, to borrow from Robert Heinlen. Also, she was featured on the "Anderson Cooper 360" show in CNN. The resulting interview, questions provided by audience members, allows the curious a peek into different mentality.
Q: There are three persons with autism in my family. How do you think an island, populated only by autistic persons such as yourself, would function?
Lawrence Decker, Floyd, VirginiaBAGGS: I don’t know. I don’t think I would want to live on an island with people of only one neurological configuration, no matter what it was.
A different neurological configuration: Is it a disease, or is it a mutation? That depends on your viewpoint. If you are in the majority in viewing the current state of humanity as paradigm, then any aberration is distasteful. Labeling an altered mental state a disease is facile, but is it accurate? Amanda clearly would argue to the contrary. As intimated by her video is it us who pay be deficient. Not versed in the science, I take the idea of mutation from my wife who, as a school social worker, has the opportunity to work first hand with Autistic children. In her efforts to do the best social work she can, she’s read up on the subject and tested theories in the kids she knows.
Autism is on the rise. As there’s no known "cure," and given the numbers of people involved, it may soon become as common as deafness, blindness, or any other "affliction." I hesitate to call Autism a disease, although it may bring on a lack of ease in unaffected people, and I ponder the possibility of a "cure." It may very well be like trying to cure a man of ethnicity.
What if autism is proven to be a mutation? What if there comes a day where there may be enough Autistics to become a voting bloc? How would the mainstream react? Greg Bear has written his take on similar issues, although he was careful not to stomp on real science by using Autism in his book: Darwin’s Children. I realize this is speculative fiction, but Sci Fi has been right before. It might be that humanity can learn learn from an altered state of reality. Most Autistics are non-violent, in the conventional sense. That’s a good start.
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:02 am
‘Disease or mutation?’ if you’re really asking, I would say neither, and yes I know lots of autistic people. Thanks for posting about Amanda, we certainly have high hopes of how her perspective may adapt other people’s perspectives.
BEst wishes