The Church of the Bleached Colon

Autism in our Society and Economic Costs
 The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (click here) has been collecting data on autism and incidents have been steadily increasing over the years. Currently, 1 in 68 children have been identified as being on the Autism Spectrum (dis)Order (ASD). Incidents are 5 times more likely to occur with boys (1 in 42) than in girls (1 in 189) and occur across socioeconomic and ethnic lines. The likelihood of ASD affecting another child is quite possible. 

It is is highly likely that every school in the country have a population of students, some unidentified, with ASD- about 1% of the school population. Since approximately 50% of those students have average to above average intelligence. That increases the likelihood that the students will be in general education and gifted classrooms. 

Additionally, the CDC estimates the cost of care for a child with ASD to be approximately $17,000 more per year than a child without ASD. Children and adolescents with ASD had medical costs of $4100-$6200 more than non ASD children. Additionally, behavioral interventions could add $40,000-$60,000 per child, per year.


The Problem with the Language of "Finding a Cure"
As Autism becomes more prominent in our daily lexicon, and it becomes more prevalent in our world, we come to the inevitable crossroads associated with its new status. On of the most annoying, and outrageous of them are the snake-oil doctors that promise a solution or a cure. This is the unfortunate result of the curebies- those people who see Autism as a disease in need of a cure. The problem many of us have with searching for a cure is that it implies superiority by the people offering to find one. It implies that there is  something broken. It implies that someone is ill and requires a cure. The whole idea needs to be re-evaluated and, ultimately, this language of a cure for Autism needs to be discarded.

Back in 2006, a blogger named abfh clarified the term curebie on her shared blog Whose Planet is it Anyway (click here). She felt that the defining characteristic of a curebie is a fanatical desperation to destroy a child's autistic traits in their entirety. Autism takes on a separate and distinct identity in the curebie mind; it is personified as a demonic foe that must be defeated at all costs. The child ceases to be seen as a sentient person and instead is treated as if he were a battleground for a cosmic struggle between good and evil.

This "find a cure theme" is a generally consistent in the language of people like Jenny McCarthy and Autism Awareness. This dividing line also can lead to some very heated arguments about the rights of Autistic children and the parents who try to change one of their defining human traits.

The Problem with the Language of "Combatting Autism"
A similar themed and philosophically consistent argument is made by TheArc of Maryland in a recent discussion on the language of "Combatting Autism" (click here). The Arc- and many others- are trying to see this language dismantled as Congress moves forward on the reauthorization of the Combatting Autism Act (CAA). Among the changes called for by The Arc's petition are to use respectful language and avoiding the word combative. Other changes have to do with balancing the research funding to include effective delivery of services for the needs of people with autism across their lifetimes.

But the changing of language has more validity than just rethinking how we refer to one another. It has to do with human values, and valuing people for their unique individuality. When people speak in terms of combat and cure, the doors are kicked open for a different kind of cure- and that is the removal of a class of people altogether.

Amniocentesis and the Decline in Down Syndrome Births
As amniocentesis becomes increasingly available and used as part of prenatal screening, so too comes the termination of pregnancies in which genetic anomalies are identified. A series of statistics and studies quoted in an Australian article Is this the Beginning of the End of Down Syndrome (click here) bring up some interesting questions and challenges to what some call 21st Century eugenics.

A Victorian study showed that only 5.3% of pregnancies with a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome were continued. The study, coauthored by Melbourne area public health genetics expert Jane Halliday showed that nearly 95% of the pregnancies were terminated. This statistic is consistent in other predominantly English speaking countries with statistics of about 92 per cent in the US, and about 93 per cent in the UK.

In light of these statistics, then, it is not a far reach to wonder if the same kind of outcome is the future for prenatal identification of Autism. It also supports why the autistic community feel directly threatened by language that challenges and diminishes the value of Autism in our society. It becomes a matter of survival.

When language leans toward curing and eradicating Autism, the response of those of us who are Autistic is clear. This is more than a matter of semantics. It a matter of survival. Targeted abortion is only one threat. The murder of  the autistic is a completely different one, but every bit as frightening.

Autism and Quackery 
In an age where people will allow their flesh to be eaten in order to get loaded (click here) on hard drugs, it should hardly come as a surprise that there are plenty of snake oil healers ready to sell therapies that are legal and seem legit. Jenny McCarthy's Generation Rescue, for example. Completely fucking bonkers. They make Autism Speaks look moderate in comparison. But there are more devious and dangerous practitioners out there, such as the Judge Rotenberg Center (click here).

With the CDC data stating that 1 in 68 of the population have an Autistism Spectrum (dis)Order, it should come as no surprise that the field of Autism is booming with curebies and hucksters trying to convince parents that they have the silver bullet.  

Last October Forbes ran The 5 Scariest Autism "Treatments" by Emily Willingham (click here). They are Chelation, Stem Cell treatments, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Master Mineral Solution, and Chemical Castration.  Most of these treatments are absolutely insane and put the children n danger. As one who initially fell for the thimerosal and autism connection years ago (click here), and who realizes it simply isn't there, I understand the desperation to find out why. However, thimerosal and Autism seems to keep rearing it's bloated and erroneous head. I hope these other crazy practices won't follow suit. 

Pastor Bleach Enema Wants to Save Your...… uh
Currently it is a whack preacher (oooops, I mean an Archbishop) named Jim Humble and his far fetched solution- bleach enemas, for crying out loud- that have been making the loudest rumble in the Facebook World that I live in. 

Humble had, uh, umm, a humble beginning as just a regular old mining engineer down in the jungles of Guyana. He's not to be mixed up with or confused with that other famous Guyana Jim (click here). He began plying around with his chemistry set and bottles of water (click here) to help a couple of workers struck down by malaria when, Eureka! He came up with the Master Mineral Solution, or MMS. 

Old Jim didn't get much love from the scientific world or medical practitioners, so he did what any other Guyana reverend would do. He started blowing his own horn a little louder, created a cool sounding quasi religious group called the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, and gave his most righteous mineral soul followers fancy sounding titles like the Most High Crew and Ministers of Health. As much as I searched, I did not find anyone holding the coveted title of Imperial Butt Wizard (click here).

The Federal Drug Administration has begun cracking down on Jimbo's people (click here) apparently for selling MMS.  Rallying around butt wizard Douglas Smith and his wife who could face jail-time in the United States. Apparently the dumb-asses left the comfort of Ecuador, where they could legally sell MMS without any government interference- to do a Quixotic battle for bleach colonics in the United States. 

They do it all for you.

http://io9.com/5916354/the-awful-inhumanity-of-using-bleach-enemas-to-treat-autistic-children

http://www.mmsautism.org/mms-master-mineral-solution