Yesterday was World Autism Awareness Day. As my masters thesis dealt with Asperger Syndrome—which is a form of autism—autism is something that is close to my heart. I desire to see more people educated about autism; that our society can adapt to accommodate people who have autism more and integrate them as fully-fledged members of society (at least there where they are still treated like outsiders). However, as the abortion and infanticide debate continues, I fear the day when children with autism are targeted as children with Down Syndrome are today. It is clear that children are eliminated simply for the sake of the parents' convenience, so it is not far fetched to imagine that it could happen to children with autism (if we were to develop prenatal tests for autism, which do not yet exist, but could be on the way). In this article I hope to show how typising a child based on their diagnosis is a slippery slope. Read more …