Two Babes and a Brain

Genetic Counseling and What It Can Mean...

Over April vacation, I took my children on a trip to NYC. Everywhere we went, people were talking about Autism.  Billboards, buses, toy stores--everywhere--there were signs and commercials and fund-raisers and raise money for Autism.It was creepy. It made more sense once I discovered that April was Autism Awareness month.

We were standing in Toys-R-Us, waiting for the elevator, when a TV blared out a commercial with the tag line, "Cure Autism Now!" My ten year old made an ugly face and muttered, "They say it like it's a bad thing. I don't need to be cured." Well, WOW! This was a change in perspective. Jacob used to ask me why he was cursed with Autism. He used to tell me that when he met God, he was going to ask him why he gave him Autism and tell him that he didn't think it was fair.

All of this is a lead in to tell you about this article in the NY Times, which led me to this column by George Will.

If you take the time to read both pieces something about it all will probably make you squirm. I completely respect Mr. Will's perspective and yet, something about it strikes me as disingenuous.

Testing can be done for Down Syndrome, yes, but those tests can not tell you the severity of the disability present in the baby. He argues that screening is done so that abortions can be performed and while the numbers seem to bear that out somewhat, couldn't you have the testing done so that if your child had Down Syndrome you could be better prepared? Because most of my family and friends are who they are--Catholic--terminating a pregnancy was never an option for them, but being prepared was and screening tests gave them that opportunity.

He talks about his son who is by all accounts a happy and productive guy. Terrific. But how many are like him and how many parents are equipped with the skills and the money--and lets not pretend raising successful children with disabilities isn't about money--as the Will family?

And Mr. Will argues that if there are less children with Down Syndrome there will be fewer services and the world will be less accepting of them. He may be right. I'm not sure if that is a reason to encourage more Down Syndrome kids. If you could "cure" 80 percent of Down Syndrome kids at birth with an injection of something--would the argument that doing so would make the 20 percent that weren't "curable" more isolated be reason not to do it?

There is no way to screen for Autism. Hell, an Autism diagnosis is still a pretty subjective thing and once the word is muttered parents are left to scramble to find out what it is and the many different ways they might be able to help. It is hit or miss. One has to become a scientist and a doctor and a parent on the fly. It is exhausting and the degree to which parents do it well is all over the place.

As for aborting children with disabilities...I'm just one person and honestly not equipped to make that decision for all of man-kind or judge those who have chosen to do that. I, do however, read an awful lot of stories about Autistic kids who end up being kept in cages by their parents and who were killed accidentally during exorcisms where their parents tried to remove the demons from them. The list of tragedies committed by parents grows daily: the woman who set her apartment on fire and burned her autistic son to death, the woman who drove her and her autistic daughter off a bridge because she couldn't care for her anymore...on and on and on.

Some people are just not equipped to deal.

Chris

A little sunlight on the whole Autism thing, please...

I think it is time to spend a little money, subpoena some people in the know at some drug companies, unseal some records, muzzle Senator Frist and have a little Congressional hearing.

I think this because no one knows what the truth is about autism and heavy metals and--apparently--this is causing people to choose some pretty risky "treatments" which have been know to cause death.

A five year old autistic boy died during "treatment."

More on Autism and Vaccines

The other day I posted about Autism and Vaccines. I received more links to studies than I could possibly ever read—pretty much because I have kids with autism and they take up most of my time.

I am reading the book Evidence of Harm mostly because it is being talked about in my kid’s therapy circles. The author is very up front. He admits right in the beginning that the book is told from the perspective of parents who believe that vaccines—more specifically thimerisol—caused their children’s autism.

The autism described in the book isn’t like the kind my kids have. With my children, there was no sudden loss of skill or major illness or rash or any of the things that are described by these parents. I do not know my children’s mercury level nor would I use chelation if it were high. I accept my children the way they are and work with them in hopes that they will succeed in life. I do this with my child that is not autistic as well.

However, there are some interesting things that I think are worthy of note.

Thimerisol is a mercury-based additive put in vaccines to prevent contamination.

In 1982 an independent panel convened by the FDA called for removing all mercury-based preservatives—including thimerisol-- from over the counter products because they were not “generally recognized as safe and effective” due to it’s potential for cell damage.

They continued to put this substance--that was dangerous to rub on your skin--in vaccines that were injected into infants and children.

It took the FDA until 1998 to pull the over the counter products.

Thimerisol was not in every vaccine. It was not in single dose shots. It was put in larger bottles of vaccines so that the bottles could withstand multiple punctures from multiple needles and not become contaminated. The larger bottles are more cost effective.

Thimerisol is ineffective as a preservative. Vaccines with thimerisol can still become contaminated.

Bolus shots or shots that are given that contain more than one vaccine had thimerisol in them. The bolus shots exposed a child to 125 times the recommended daily exposure of mercury.

Dick Armey put a provision in the Patriot Act—hours before the vote--that made it impossible to sue the companies that used thimerisol. Bill Frist had previously tried to get this bill passed in the Senate and failed. Senator Frist implied that this was because thimerisol was contained in Anthrax and Small Pox vaccines and our ability to fight terrorism would be undermined if lawsuits were to proceed against the companies that made them. Thimerisol was not in any of the “terrorism” vaccines.

I don't know what any of it means, but these are facts that are not in dispute.

More to come at another time...

Chris

Senator Frist and Autism

So, it seems that most cases of autism are caused by an ingrediant in vaccinations. The science is hard to understand and I am not sure I understand it all, but since the latest thin is to call for investigations, I'd like to call for one on this.

I want to know who knew what and when they knew it.

You can read more about it here and I'm not sure I can promise that there won't be many more posts on this subject.

But just to keep the political tone of the blog going, check out this:

"Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200 lawsuits that have been filed by the parents of injured children. On five separate occasions, Frist has tried to seal all of the government's vaccine-related documents -- including the Simpsonwood transcripts -- and shield Eli Lilly, the developer of thimerosal, from subpoenas. In 2002, the day after Frist quietly slipped a rider known as the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" into a homeland security bill, the company contributed $10,000 to his campaign and bought 5,000 copies of his book on bioterrorism. Congress repealed the measure in 2003 -- but earlier this year, Frist slipped another provision into an anti-terrorism bill that would deny compensation to children suffering from vaccine-related brain disorders. "The lawsuits are of such magnitude that they could put vaccine producers out of business and limit our capacity to deal with a biological attack by terrorists," says Andy Olsen, a legislative assistant to Frist. "

What happened to do no harm?

Chris