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Genetic Testing For Geekiness?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the clone-armies-rule dept.

Paul Johnson writes "MSNBC is carrying an article wondering about how to handle a possible future genetic test for autism. Raising a severely autistic child is a heartbreaking grind, and many people (and legal systems) consider termination to be a reasonable choice where the fetus carries other genetic disorders such as Downs Syndrome. But this might also prevent the birth of future geniuses too. The article flippantly uses Bill Gates as an example (Gates is widely thought to have Asperger's syndrome), although Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison are also thought to have been similarly "different". And there is some reason to believe that "geekiness" in general is actually the place where autism shades into 'normal'."

2 of 861 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually smarter people tend to be better adjusted than most folks. It is a myth that intelligence leads to misery.
    Also this entire topic is hilarious. Linking autism to geekiness?
    I can only assume most people have never genuinely encountered an autistic or person with aspergers.
    They don't function well, and if newton or einstien had it, it is to their credit they achieved what they did, inspite of their condition.

  2. Re:so sad by utexaspunk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    don't be so quick to judge those who don't make the same decisions as you. in other cultures a child born with such a defect would be left in the woods, or similarly cast out. there are many of us who would rather invest our parenting efforts and limited time raising a child who will grow up to be independent and able to carry on our genetic line.

    not all of us believe that that cluster of cells which has implanted itself in a woman's uterus has a soul, or is even yet a human being with all the rights that accompany such status, and would rather stop a frustrating and problematic situation before it develops into an irreversible one.

    don't get me wrong- i respect your choice. it's noble, and all that. but nobody should be forced to live with an avoidable anomalous situation and accept it as "god's will", as not everyone believes that.