Dear Mr

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Jeff Sell letter

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Dear Mr. Cowley:
    I cannot describe the gut-wrenching frustration that I felt when I finally sat down and read the Newsweek article on line tonight.  I don't believe that I have ever read a more offensive statement to parents of regressive autistic spectrum children as the following line of unadulterated nonsense that follows:
    "If Baron-Cohen is right, autism is not just a disease in need of a cure.  It's a mental style that people can learn to accommodate.  Sometimes it's even a gift."
    A gift? 

    While I do feel that my 9 year-old autistic twins, Ben and Joe are gifts from God; their autism was assuredly not.  The gut issues, immune irregularities, seizures, self-injurious behaviors and inability to communicate, or even speak a single word in 9 years of life in Ben's case, is surely not a "mental style" that my sons chose.  It is indeed a disease very much in need of a cure.
    Years ago, Bruno Bettleheim blamed mothers for autism; it certainly appears that Baron-Cohen now blames the children, and Newsweek is promoting this unfounded view.  That is a shame.

Peacefully,
Jeff Sell
Autism Society of America - 1st Vice Chair
Chairman - ASA Government Relations Committee

 

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Date: 
September 5, 2003