Designer Babies

Originally Posted by Chibi Neko

I would not consider autism as a development problem, it is just a way of being... I know this because I was autistic and I graduated from collage at age 19 in technology and have a decent full time job. I did not socialize because I chose not to.

If genetics can prevent real development issues like down syndrom, the I am for it.

He's likely referring to the more serious cases of autism, where they have actual learning difficulties and communication issues, not high-functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Chibi Neko

I have had learning difficulties and communication issues, I can't do math to save my life to this day, and my firends where few and far between, my cats where my best firends, I did not start to talk until age two and even then I got frustrated and did repetitive things when no one understood me, but I learned how to talk better and I just did not socialize with others because I did not like them, that was choice. We all depevlop differently as individuals and have different preferences in terms of interaction with other people, that is why I don't consider autism a mental issue. I speak from experience.

If autism was any worse then that then it would have to be bridging down syndrom or something simiar. Only then would I think genetics would be a good idea to prevent it.

There are many degrees of autism. Historically, autism is a communication disorder that can be so severe that autistics cannot speak or write at all. High-functioning autistics often can overcome these issues and lead healthy, normal lives, but many of them struggle with their problems from day to day.

These differing degrees of symptoms all fall under the "autistic spectrum", which includes individuals as varied as highly disfunctional, mute autistics, and people who have Asperger's Syndrome (A parallel disorder to autism which contains many of the same indicators, but lacks the delayed speech development and large amounts of imaginative play of typical autistics.). The general public's awareness of autism sadly falls into what they've seen in movies, such as Rain Man and Mercury Rising, as well as the extremes that the media loves to push into the spotlight, giving them the false impression that all autistics are severely developmentally disabled, instead of the broad range of autism that is a better indicator of what it consists of.

The idea of "curing autism" is indeed a flawed one, as this would change many people's personalities, feelings, interests and outlooks. That's not the aspect that I believe RR was referring to: attempting to remove the impaired IQ's, major communication issues, and other problems that plague more serious cases.

However, this is all hypothetical anyway. I, personally, would be against much of this kind of genetic engineering, but only time will tell if it's even possible, much less if people will accept it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.