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Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?


Posts: 40

It's now 2016 and the cure for autism is widely known. This brings up a troubling ethical quandary ; is it morally acceptable to cure autism, especially in cases where the autistic subject does not wish to be cured?

I posit that it is indeed ethical to cure autistic people. Autism is a debilitating condition which erodes the subjects ability to feel empathy, rendering them into little more than dangerous anti-social animals incapable of functioning within society. It's a side-affect of the autism which distorts their perceptions, making them believe that they are valid and worthwhile people instead of hollow shambling caricatures of humanity. By curing autism, we could promote a marginally safer, happier and more productive world. Interestingly, empathy is the one thing saving autistics from wide-scale curing. As decent feeling human beings capable of empathy we have a propensity towards anthropomorphising non-humans , seeing human values and human traits where they don't exist as a way of better relating to them. By projecting non-existent human traits onto autistics, we generally feel guilty or reluctant to cure them, thus perpetuating a vicious cycle where autistics  are free to live, breed and often become violent antisocial and noncontributing parasites on soceity while we as decent people are unwilling to cure them because they remind us too much of real people.

What do you guys think? Should we cure autistics or are there valid reasons not to beyond our own sentimentality towards human-shaped animals?

Posts: 415
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

By "cure" you mean kill, right? Spastastic cleansing?

 

Posts: 10218
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

Removing mental disorders would decrease the potential for creativity and natural comedy. The deviations provide entertainment and a means to see life through a drastically different lens. Through another there's room for both introspection and intrigue.

Balancing out the human condition serves to remove its flavor. Life would be blander without a strong means of comparison.

Posts: 1566
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

I do not know about autism, but some aspies are more worthy then a large number of moronic creatures that call themselves humans crawling on the planet.

And there are also aspies that deserve to burn for 10 years before death.

Posts: 3882
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

It depends on the severity of the autism and this person's ability to function as to whether or not this cure is ethical. 

If this person cannot make a living on their own, cannot provide from themselves because of the degree of autism, it'd be unethical to not cure them. On the flip side of that, if we have a functional person who just has a minor degree of autism we're getting too close to stripping away individuality for me to render it ethical. I only see this sort of approach being ethical in a very few cases where the person is hindered to the point of  retardation by autism.

That's of course if there's a cure : b

Posts: 1259
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

Dynastia stated: source post

...rendering them into little more than dangerous anti-social animals incapable of functioning within society...

...hollow shambling caricatures of humanity...

...often become violent antisocial and noncontributing parasites on soceity...

I'd like proof that autistic people are generally violent and incapable of functioning within society. Since this is a serious topic and all. 

Posts: 696
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

"It's now 2016 and the cure for autism is widely known."

Derision noted. If you're going to attempt to hurt Xena, make it clever? Please?

Posts: 1319
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

Is it a disease to be cured or a (extreme) personality trait? Often times populations benefit from diversity within the group, while paying the price for it in the short term (many can't work and thus must rely on society to sustain them). Genetic, cultural and social diversity often times helps spices survive extinction events and prosper in the long run. On the other hand social diversity is not always good in cases where our goal is monotone and undeniable values (equality of human life, equal before the law, pursuit of happiness etc.).

Posts: 1121
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

haart stated: source post

"It's now 2016 and the cure for autism is widely known."

Derision noted. If you're going to attempt to hurt Xena, make it clever? Please?

Cleverness is nice, but not actually necessary in this case.  It takes shockingly little cleverness to arouse Xena's anger and insecurity.

Posts: 696
Serious Discussion ; Is it ethical to cure autism?

Good answer XD

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