The False Prophets of Autism

Two years ago, Jenny McCarthy, the actress turned activist, said she found the cure for her son’s autism. Since then, I’ve watched McCarthy and her autism advocacy group, Generation Rescue, lead an ideological, unscientific crusade against childhood vaccines.
Oprah has signed a deal to sponsor McCarthy in her very own talk show. I’ve listened to McCarthy’s announcements that her son Evan “is no longer in the world of autism.” He is, she says, “recovered.” It makes me cringe.

I don’t know what “recovered” looks like. I’ve heard people throw this term around, but I’ve yet to meet a child who is “cured” of autism. You could say that any child receiving therapy is “in recovery.” I’ve seen many kids who have made good progress in a therapeutic setting, my own 17-year-old son included. But most of these children still are and will always be autistic.

other good autism pieces at newsvine

Speaking of autism gretchen and I are going tomorrow night to see a premiere of a movie about one of the most famous people with autism, Temple Grandin, and she'd scheduled to speak too.I'm planning to write something up about it, publishing it about Friday.

MSNBC has a good interview here with Temple that does a good job explaining how she views things differet in her brain.

I've also seeded two pieces to the children of autism group about the movie which airs on hbo this weekend. It was also filmed in the austin area fwiw.