Autism Rights Movement - Anti-cure Perspective

Anti-cure Perspective

"Curing" and/or "treating" autism is a controversial and politicized issue. Doctors and scientists are not clear on the cause(s) of autism yet many organizations like Defeat Autism Now! and Autism Speaks advocate researching a cure. Members of the various autism rights organizations view autism as a way of life rather than as a disease and thus advocate acceptance over a search for a cure. Some advocates believe that common treatments for the behavioral and language delays associated with autism, like Applied behavior analysis therapy, are not only misguided but also unethical.

The "anti-cure perspective" endorsed by the movement is a view that autism is not a disorder, but a normal occurrence—an alternate variation in brain wiring or a less common expression of the human genome. Advocates of this perspective believe that autism is a unique way of being that should be validated, supported and appreciated rather than shunned, discriminated against or cured. They believe quirks and uniqueness of autistic individuals should be tolerated as the differences of any minority group should be tolerated and that efforts to cure autism should not be compared, for example, to curing cancer but instead to the antiquated notion of curing left-handedness.

Variations within the anti-cure movement are diverse. Jim Sinclair, a leader in the movement, argues that autism is essential to a person, not a disease secondary to the person. He says that wishing that an autistic person be cured is equivalent to wishing that he disappear and another completely different person exist in his place. Visions for a future where autism has been eradicated, he believes, is the desire to end the autistic culture.