Okay, so this is something I really need to get off my chest.
I understand that people are upset that Autism Speaks doesn't give much of their money to support for families. I get that. I understand that people are upset that there isn't anyone with autism on their board. I get that.
What I don't get is that people are angry that they support research, be it for a cure or what have you. People cite that this means that they wish to erase people and I just ... Don't get that? I mean, research into a cure for cancer doesn't mean that they want to erase people with cancer, right? People WANT a cure for cancer. So why not autism? (Please not that I am not stupid and realize that cancer and autism are not the same thing.) (Also note that I do not have autism. My younger brother has Asperger's, and I a speaking from secondhand experience.)
People are mad that they want prenatal testing, similarly to how there's such a thing for Down's Syndrome.
This is both good and bad. Most people see the bad, but look at it this way- would you prefer a child be born with Autism to a family that cannot support him/her, be it monetarily or support-wise? I've seen children with special needs born to families that cannot handle it, and that child typically suffers, through no fault of their own or even that of their parents. I believe that they should have a choice - Can I handle everything this child will need?
Yes, I realize that it is a bad thing because it is prejudiced towards that child for a disorder they *might* have.
I also don't have much of an issue with a lot of money going to research because so little is known about autism. There's a lot about it that's a mystery, and that's part of the problem. Social stereotyping gets in the way. People throw the word around willy-nilly. If we don't have research, no one will understand. My younger brother was not diagnosed until he was between the ages of 9 to 11. Sometimes I wonder- what if he had been diagnosed sooner? Would he have gotten the help he needed in school sooner? Would we have been able to better help him?
I tend to think that he was diagnosed so late because of the lack of knowledge that this disorder has. Research is important.
And yes, I also realize that many of their campaigns are rather .. distasteful. But scare tactics are, honestly, what work. Consider commercials to stop smoking- you never see them cite the little problems. They cite the big ones- the deaths, the cardiovascular problems, etc. They don't mention that 'oh, smoking can make your teeth yellow!; They mention that 'smoking can kill you, and can harm those around you in a severe way.' Scare tactics are the only way to get through to people that are only half-paying attention to commercials anyway. (No, I do not agree with how they do their commercials, but I do know that many organizations do this same tactic).
I just wanted to kind of get this off my chest, because I've been feeling like a horrible person yesterday for buying the Autism Speaks Build-A-Bear, thinking I was supporting research that could help people like my brother, and wondering with dread how I was going to explain it to my mother, who is very involved in this sort of thing and also bought one of the bears.
tl;dr: Research is not bad, looking for a cure does not mean eliminating actual people; and it isn't necessarily a bad thing to have prenatal tests. Also, don't make people who don't know/support AS/etc out to be or made to feel like terrible people
