Why people latch on to external causes for autism.

The other day I was looking at the google ads on my blog and saw one that caught my eye. It was for some lawyer who is suing some drug company because their medication used by pregnant women, causes autism. So I started thinking about why people are quick to latch on to things like this or mercury as the causes of autism.

Fundamentally our society is based around ism's, Racism, classism, sexism ETC. Eugenics ties into this as well. There seems to be an undercurrent of Eugenics in our society. Most people would probably flat out deny that they support Eugenics, but I feel that on some level many people do support Eugenics or eugenical ideas. This I feel may be part of the reason people latch on to things like mercury as a cause of autism

If there is a genetic link with autism then it implies a few things. It implies that not only is your kid defective, but you are too. Not only that, you are responsible for making your kid defective. It's much safer to blame the nasty drug complanies for poisoning your kids than to accept the fact that you might not be as geneticaly pure as you once thought. On top of that, then you have to worry about the possibility of other kids you may want to have, being born autistic. And what about your "normal" children? Might they pass on the autism genes and spawn more genetic abominations? This may be to much for some people to want to wrap their heads around.

As far as the autistic children go. People don't want to have to think about autistic kids becoming autistic adults. People don't want to have to think about their kid using diapers well into their 20's and beyond. They don't want to think about the prospects of missing out on senior prom, college graduation, the wedding, the grand kids. No, it's far simpler to think "I'll just take my kid to a chelation doctor and he will be normal."

Well, the reality is that your child will probably be autistic for life. I don't see any possibility of "overcoming" my autism, nor do I want to. So get your your head out of the sand and accept the possibility that your child's autism may in fact be genetic. Accept the fact that your child may never "overcome" autism and may be autistic for life.