This is probably old news for many people - I have heard references to the mTOR protein being a potential contributing factor to Autism, but hadn't realized where the direction of research was going. It's frightening.
Take a look at this article:
Children with Autism Have Extra Synapses in Brain - Columbia University Medical Center
This fact isn't wholly surprising, and it's very interesting that a link has been found - As people with autism can find it more difficult to filter out sensory input to a bearable level, it makes sense that this would build up additional neural pathways in the brain.
But the idea that the way to treat this might be to prune the pathways to a more 'normal' level seems somewhat extreme.
No mention is made of the possibility that it is the filtering mechanism that scientists should perhaps be centering on, rather than actually changing the structure of a child's brain by intentionally removing key components of the brain - the synapses.
I can imagine the scenario where if an embryo shown signs of autism, that such a treatment could trim back pathways before there's a chance to find out what kind of person they would have been. That seems to be the thrust of the research.
Or being offered as a treatment to despairing parents where other treatment that helps a child come to terms with the condition, learning coping strategies, and how to live with the condition may take years and years of therapeutic help. Much cheaper to trim their pathways and make them normal.
The problem is, our culture thrives on diversity. And every time a difference is found and cauterized from society, we make the whole organism more brittle.
How many great discoveries were found by autistics? I suspect, more than such people trying to eliminate autistics would care to think about.
The thing is, when you have those extra neurons, you make extra connections.
In severe cases, Autism can be crippling to a point where it is almost impossible to function as an individual. In those cases, as an adult able to make the decision for yourself, then maybe, just maybe, such treatments might be a last resort. Except, when a lifeline is thrown to you, you'll take whatever is thrown. Even if that line might choke you.
In the same way as hammering a nail into someone's head (alright a lobotomy / leucotomy was a little more precise than that) seemed like a good idea for people with severe mental health conditions for two decades (that was post WW2 btw - more recent than is comfortable to admit). Until it was realized it really wasn't very nice and it usually caused horrendous personality-related and physiological side effects.
I'm seriously worried that the direction of research with Autism has parallels with eugenics - finding ways of eliminating less socially desirable people through various means - usually justified as being 'for the person's own sake' - and the sake of their parents, of course.
The real downside long term is that this drive for a homogenized society leads to a total lack of genetic diversity which, in the long term, leaves the human race more open to being wiped out through a disease. Less diversity, more chance that if just the wrong disease strikes, nobody has resistance.
But that's the Sciency bit. There's the moral issue of whether it's actually Ok to wipe out a whole section of society because they are inconvenient.
Funny how the larger non-marginal portion of society tends to be a little ambivalent to the 'cure' justification - it's easy to make justifications - until it's someone they know, or love who is 'cured' out of existance.
Maybe in fifty years, people will start taking notice that the population seems to be oddly dumbed down and lacking in innovation since all the autistic types went away.
But hey, why not drive a nail through the brain of an autistic. Just do it chemically before they are born, and nobody will notice.
Can I ask a favor?
Would you mind upvoting this to get the word out there, or post a link to this to your FaceBook page or wherever you share this kind of thing, and ask others to share - because I suspect people don't know what is being done in the name of medical research, without even a nod to the ethical implications.