According to a paper recently published in the science journal Nature, Chinese researchers have successfully used gene editing on mice with a mutation associated with autism. These mice displaced repetitive actions and unusual social traits, but the gene editing changed their behaviour, suggesting that these kinds of behavioural abnormalities can be reversed.
If this could be successfully applied to humans, it would have massive implications for the understanding and treatment of autism — but would cause a huge conflict among autistic advocates, parents, and medical practitioners.
We can see this already with cochlear implants to treat deafness: some deaf people resent the implication that it is a deficiency to be cured, rather than an identity to be celebrated and respected. The comments below reaction videos of deaf kids having cochlear implants switched on are often full of angry remarks about how deaf people do not need to be “fixed”. Some deaf activists have even described cochlear implants as “child abuse” and argued that they are “genocidal” (in the sense that they would “wipe out” deafness).
If it were possible to “reverse” or mitigate the symptoms of autism, it’s fair to say this would cause a debate as incendiary as that over cochlear implants — if not even more rancorous.
The Scottish Green Party recently voted to ban any treatment aimed at modifying the behaviour of people with disabilities — comparing it to conversion therapy for gay and transgender people. And as one autism activist wrote today, “Any time you write an article about ‘treating’ autism, you are failing the autistic children and adults who need supports, understanding, acceptance, and services that they are not getting because all funding is going into those f***ing ‘treatments’. Do better.”
One important difference between this issue and treatments for deafness is that cochlear implants are not suitable for all deaf people, can take months or years to adapt to, and do not restore or replicate “normal” hearing. Hence there are lots of solid medical reasons why some deaf people should not and do not use them.
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